IRLF 


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LI  BR  AR  Y 

OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA. 

OR 


Revived..    __ 
Accessions  N0.£0£__=_       Shelf  Na^' 


HUMBOLDT  LIBRARY 


POPULAR  SCIENCE  LITERATURE. 


No.  62.] 


NEW  YORK  :    J.  FITZGERALD. 


November,  1884.      Entered  at  the  New  York  Post-Office  as  Second-Class  Matter.          I  ^Numbers1 


THE 


OF   THE 


ANCIENT   WOR 


BY  GEORGE  RAWLINSON,  M.A. 

|J 


INTRODUCTION. 

"  Religio  est,  quae  superioris  cujusdam  na- 
turae, quam  Divinam  vocant,  curam  caerimo- 
niamque  affert." — Cic.  De  Inventione,  ii.  53. 

1,  IT  is  the  fashion  of  the  day   to 
speculate    on    the    origins   of   things. 
Not  content  with  observing  the  mech- 
anism of  the  heavens,  astronomers  dis- 
cuss the  formation  of  the  material  uni- 
verse,  and   seek   in   the   phenomena 
which  constitute  the  subject-matter  of 
their  science  for   "  Vestiges  of  Crea- 
tion." Natural  philosophers  propound 
theories  of  the  "Origin  of  Species," 
and  the  primitive   condition   of   man. 
Comparative  philologists  are  no  longer 
satisfied   to   dissect   languages,   com- 
pare   roots,    or   contrast    systems   of 
grammar,  but  regard  it  as  incumbent 
upon  them  to  put  forward  views  re- 
specting the  first  beginnings   of  lan- 
guage itself. 

2.  To  deal  with  facts  is  thought  to 
be  a  humdrum  and  commonplace  em- 
ployment of  the  intellect,  one  fitted  for 
the  dull  ages  when  men  were  content 
to  plod,  and   when  progress,  develop- 
ment, "  the  higher  criticism  "  were  un- 
known.    The  intellect  now  takes  loft- 


ier flights.  Conjecture  is  found  to  be 
more  amusing  than  induction,  and  an 
ingenious  hypothesis  to  be  more  at- 
tractive than  a  proved  law.  Our  "  ad- 
vanced thinkers  "  advance  to  the  fur- 
thest limits  of  human  knowledge, 
sometimes  even  beyond  them  ;  and  be- 
witch us  with  speculations,  which  are 
as  beautiful,  and  as  unsubstantial,  as 
the  bubbles  which  a  child  produces 
with  a  little  soap  and  water  and  a  to- 
bacco-pipe. 

3.  Nor  does  even  religion  escape. 
The  historical  method  of  inquiry  into 
the  past  facts  of  religion  is  in  danger 
of  being  superseded  by  speculations 
concerning  what  is  called  its  "  philos- 
ophy," or  its  "  science."  We  are  con- 
tinually invited  to  accept  the  views  of 
this  or  that  theorist  respecting  the 
origin  of  all  religions,  which  are  attrib- 
uted either  to  a  common  innate  idea 
or  instinct,  or  else  to  a  common  mode 
of  reasoning  upon  the  phenomena  and 
experiences  of  human  life.  While  the 
facts  of  ancient  religions  are  only  just 
emerging  from  the  profound  obscurity 
that  has  hitherto  rested  upon  them, 
fancy  is  busy  constructing  schemes 
and  systems,  which  have  about  as 


2     [SOj 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


much  reality  as  the  imaginations  of  a  j  and    Babylonians,  Iranians,  Sanskrit- 
novelist  or  the  day-dreams  of  an  Al-  ic    Indians,    Phoenicians,    Etruscans, 

Greeks,  and  Romans. 

The  religion  of  the  Jews  has  been 
omitted,  as  sufficiently  well  known  to 
all  educated  persons.  The  religions 
of  ancient  barbarous  races  have  been 
excluded,  as  not  having  come  down  to 
us  in  any  detail,  or  upon  sufficiently 
trustworthy  evidence.  The  eight  na- 
tions selected  have,  on  the  contrary, 
left  monuments  and  writings,  more 
or  less  extensive,  from  which  it  has 
seemed  to  be  possible  to  give  a  tolera- 
bly full  account  of  their  religious  be- 
liefs, and  one  on  which  a  fair  degree 
of  dependence  may  be  placed.  No 
doubt,  as  time  goes  on,  and  fresh  dis- 
coveries are  made  of  ancient  docu- 


naschar.  The  patient  toil,  the  care- 
ful investigation  which  real  Science 
requires  as  the  necessary  basis  upon 
which  generalization  must  proceed, 
and  systems  be  built  up,  is  discarded 
for  the  "  short  and  easy  method  "  of 
jumping  to  conclusions  and  laying 
down  as  certainties  what  are,  at  the 
best,  "guesses  at  truth." 

4.  It  is  not  the  aim  of  the  present 
writer  to  produce  a  "  Science  of  Re- 
ligion," or  even  to  speculate  on  the 
possibility  of  such  a  science  being  ul- 
timately elaborated  when  all  the  facts 
are  fully  known.  He  has  set  himself 
a  more  prosaic  and  less  ambitious 
task — that,  namely,  of  collecting  ma- 


terials which  may  serve  as  a  portion  rnents,  or  an  increased  insight  ob- 
of  the  data,  when  the  time  comes,  if  it  j  tained  into  the  true  meaning  of  their 
ever  comes,  for  the  construction  of  |  contents,  we  shall  come  to  know  much 
the  science  in  question.  A  building  more  than  we  know  at  present  on  the 


cannot  be  erected  without  materials  ; 
a  true  science  cannot  be  constructed 
without  ample  data. 

5.  Careful  inquiries  into  the  real 
nature  of  historical  religions  are  nec- 
essary preliminaries  to  the  formation 
of  any  general  theories  on  the  subject 
of  religion  worth  the  paper  upon  which 
they  are  written.  And  such  inquiries 
have,  moreover,  a  value  in  themselves. 
"  The  proper  study  of  mankind  is 
man  ;  "  and  the  past  history  of  the  hu- 
man race  possesses  an  undying  inter- 
est for  the  greater  portion  of  educated 
human  kind.  Of  that  past  history 
there  is  no  branch  more  instructive, 
and  few  more  entertaining,  than  that 
which  deals  with  religious  beliefs, 
opinions,  and  practices.  Religion  is 
the  most  important  element  in  the 
thought  of  a  nation  ;  and  it  is  by  study- 
ing their  religibns  that  we  obtain  the 
best  clue  to  the  inner  life  and  true 
character  of  the  various  peoples  who 
have  played  an  important  part  in  the 
drama  of  human  affairs. 

6.  In  the  ensuing  pages  the  relig- 
ious tenets  and  practices  of  eight  prin- 
cipal nations  of  antiquity  are  passed 
in  review — the  nations  being  those 
with  which  ancient  history  is  chiefly 
concerned — the  Egyptians.  Assyrians 


subject  here  handled  ;  but  it  is  confi- 
dently believed  that  further  research 
and  study  will  only  supplement,  and 
not  contradict,  the  views  which  are 
here  put  forward.  The  author  will 
gladly  see  the  sketch  which  he  here 
attempts  filled  up  and  completed  by 
others. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE    RELIGION   OF    THE   ANCIENT 
EGYPTIANS. 


.     .    .    6eoaifl££(;  Trt 
/ndAtora  KCLVTUV  avdpuiruv,  —  HEROD,  ii. 

7.  THE  religions  of  the  ancient 
world,  if  we  except  Judaism,  seem  to 
have  been,  all  of  them,  more  or  less 
polytheistic  ;  but  the  polytheism  grew 
up  in  different  ways,  was  carried  out 
to  very  different  lengths,  and  pro- 
ceeded upon  considerably  varying 
principles.  In  some  places  natural 
objects  and  operations  appear  to  have 
presented  themselves  to  the  unso- 
phisticated mind  of  man  as  mysteri- 
ous, wonderful,  divine  ;  and  light,  fire, 
the  air,  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  dawn, 
the  cloud,  the  stream,  the  storm,  the 
lightning,  drew  his  attention  sepa- 
ratelv  and  distinctly,  each  having 


THE  RELIGIONS   OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[81] 


qualities  at  which  he  marveled,  each, 
as  he  thought,  instinct  with  life,  and 
each,  therefore,  regarded  as  a  Power, 
a  Being — the  natural  and  proper  ob- 
ject of  worship  and  reverence.  Else- 
where, men  seem  to  have  begun  with 
a  dim  and  faint  appreciation  of  a 
single  mysterious  power  in  the  world 
without  them,  and  to  have  gradually 
divided  this  power  up  into  its  various 
manifestations,  which  by  degrees  be- 
came separate  and  distinct  beings. 
The  process  in  this  case  might  stop 
short  after  a  few  steps  had  been 
taken,  or  it  might  be  carried  on 
almost  interminably,  until  a  pantheon 
had  been  formed  in  which  the  mind 
lost  itself. 

8.  Where  the  polytheism  grew  up 
out  of  an  analysis,  the  principle  of 
the  division  might  be  either  physical 
or  metaphysical ;  a  separation  of  nat- 
ure into  its  parts,  or  an  analysis  of 
the  Being  presiding  over  nature  into 
his  various  .powers  and  attributes. 
Or  these  two  processes  might  be  com- 
bined and  intermixed,  the  pantheon 
being  thus  still  further  enlarged  at 
the  expense  of  some  confusion  of 
thought  and  complexity  of  arrange- 
ment. Again,  occasionally,  there 
was  a  further  enlargement  and  com- 
plication, in  consequence  of  the  de- 
sire to  embrace  in  one  system  analy- 
ses which  were  really  distinct,  or  to 


multitudinousness,  its  complexity, 
and  the  connection  of  this  latter  feat- 
ure with  early  local  diversities  in  the 
names  and  offices  of  the  gods.  Wil- 
kinson, who  does  not  profess  to  ex- 
haust the  subject,  enumerates  seventy- 
three  divinities,  and  gives  their 
several  names  and  forms.*  Birch 
has  a  list  of  sixty-three  "principal 
deities,"t  and  notes  that  "  others  per- 
sonified the  elements,  or  presided 
over  the  operations  of  nature,  the 
seasons,  and  events."t  It  is  not, 
perhaps,  too  much  to  say,  that  the 
Egyptian  pantheon  in  its  final  form 
comprised  some  hundreds  of  gods 
and  goddesses,  §  each  known  under  a 
different  name,  and  each  discharging 
more  or  less  peculiar  functions.  We 
say,  "each  discharging  more  or  less 
peculiar  functions,"  since  some  deities 
were  so  nearly  alike,  came  so  close 
the  one  to  the  other,  that  their  iden- 
tity or  diversity  is  a  moot  point,  still 
disputed  among  Egyptologists.  In 
other  cases  the  diversity  is  greater, 
yet  still  the  features  possessed  in 
common  are  so  numerous  that  the 
gods  can  scarcely  be  considered 
wholly  distinct,  and,  indeed,  are  not 
unfrequently  confounded  together 
and  blended  into  a  single  personage. 
We  hear  of  Amen-Ra,  Amen-Kneph, 
Ra-Harmachis,  Isis-Selk,  Phthah-So- 
kari-Osiris,  and  the  like.  There  is 


comprise  in  a  single  national  religion  \  reason  to  believe  that  a  main  cause  of 


local  diversities  of  arrangement  or 
nomenclature,  or  even  to  admit  into  a 
system  based  on  one  principle  ele- 
ments which  belonged  properly  to 
systems  based  upon  others.  The 
whole  result  in  such  a  case  was  one 
of  extensive  complexity,  and  even 
contradiction;  a  tangle  was  produced 
which  it  was  scarcely  possible  to  un- 
ravel. The  system,  however,  gained 
in  richness  and  variety  what  it  lost  in 
logical  sequence  and  intelligibility, 
and  continued  to  have  a  firm  hold 
on  the  minds  of  many  when  religions 
of  greater  internal  consistency  had 
lost  their  power. 

9.  The  Egyptian  polytheism  was  of 
the  character  last  described.  Its 
most  striking  characteristics  were  its 


this  multiplication  of  deities,  nearly 
or  quite  the  same,  which  at  first  sight 
seems  so  strange  and  unaccountable, 
is  to  be  found  in  the  originally  local 
character  of  many  of  the  gods,  and 
the  subsequent  admission  of  purely 
provincial  deities  into  the  general 
pantheon. 

10.  With  a  view  to  educe  order  out 


*"  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient 
Egyptians,"  vols.  iv.  and  v.  For  the  forms, 
see  his  "  Supplement,"  plates  21  to  72. 

t  See  his  "  Dictionary  of  Hieroglyphics  "  in 
Bunsen's  "  Egypt,"  vol.  v.  pp.  581-583. 

J  "  Guide  to  the  British  Museum,"  p.  4. 

§  An  inscription  of  Rameses  II.  speaks 
of  "  the  thousand  gods,  the  gods  male,  the 
gods  female,  those  which  are  of  the.  land  of 
Egypt "  ("  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  iv.  p. 
31) ;  but  this  phrase  is  no. doubt  rhetorical. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


of  this  multitudinous  confusion,  at- 
tempts were  made  by  the  Greeks, 
and  perhaps  by  some  of  the  later 
Egyptians  themselves,  to  classify  the 
deities,  and  divide  them  into  certain 
ranks  or  orders,  each  of  which  should 
comprise  a  certain  definite  number. 
Herodotus  speaks  of  a  first,  a  second, 
and  a  third  order,*  and  assigns  posi- 
tively to  the  first  order  eight,  and  to 
the  second  twelve  gods,  leaving  the 
third  rank  indeterminate.  Some 
traces  of  a  similar  classification  are 
found  in  some  of  the  native  writers  ;f 
and  it  is  generally  agreed  that  a  dis- 
tinction of  ranks  was  recognized ; 
but  when  an  endeavor  is  made  to 
specify  the  gods  of  each  rank,  insur- 
mountable difficulties  present  them- 
selves. It  seems  clear  that  even  the 
first  eight  gods  were  not  established 
by  the  general  consent  of  the  nation 
in  all  parts  of  Egypt,  and  probable 
that  in  one  and  the  same  place  they 
were  not  always  the  same  at  different 
periods.  According  to  what  seems 
the  earliest  tradition,  the  eight  names 
were  those  of  Phthah,  Ra,  Shu  (or 
Kneph),$  Seb,  Osiris,  Isis,  Set,  and 
Horus ;  according  to  the  latest  re- 
searches, they  were,  at  Memphis, 
Phthah,  Shu,  Tefnu,  Seb,  Nu  (or 
Nut),  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Athor ;  while 
at  Thebes  they  were  Ammon,  Mentu, 
Turn  (or  Atum),  Shu,  Seb,  Osiris, 
Set,  and  Horus. §  Others  have 
thought  to  find  them  in  Ammon, 
Khem,  Maut,  Kneph,  Sati,  Phthah, 
Neith,  and  Raj  or  in  this  list  with  a 
single  change — that  of  the  last  name, 
for  which  it  is  proposed  to  substitute 
that  of  Bast  or  Pasht.H"  It  is  evident 
that,  while  the  chief  authorities  are 

*  Herod,  ii.  43. 

t  As  Manetho  (ap.  Euseb.  "  Chron.  Can." 
i.  19). 

t  The  name  given  is  Agathodaemon,  who 
is  thought  to  represent  one  or  other  of  these 
gods. 

§  See  Birch's  "Egypt  from  the  Earliest 
Times  to  B.C.  300,"  Introduction,  pp.  x.  xi., 
and  compare  "  Guide  to  the  British  Muse- 
um," p.  12. 

||  Bunsen's  "Egypt's  Place  in  Ancient 
History,"  vol.  i.  pp.  366-367. 

Tf  Wilkinson,  in  Rawlinson's  "  Herodotus," 
vol.  ii.  pp.  284-286  (32d  edition). 


thus  at  variance,  no  certain  list  of 
even  the  eight  great  gods  can  be  put 
forward. 

11.  The  twelve  gods  of  the  second 
order   are   still   more   indeterminate. 
Two  lists  have  been  formulated,  one 
by  Sir  G.  Wilkinson,  and  the  other  by 
the  late  Baron  Bunsen,  but  each  in- 
cludes three  deities  which  are  excluded 
by  the  other.1*     The  formation  of  such 
lists  is  mere  guess-work  ;  and  the  con- 
clusion to  be  drawn  from  the  attempts 
made  is  that,  while  the  Egyptians  rec- 
ognized a  gradation  of  ranks  among^ 
their  deities,  and  assigned  to  some  a 
position   of   decided     superiority,   to 
others   one,   comparatively  speaking, 
inferior,  there  was  no  "  hard-and-fast 
line  "  separating  rank  from  rank,  or 
order  from  order,  nor  was  any  definite 
number  of  divinities  reckoned  in  any 
division. 

12.  Still,  we  can  easily  particularize 
the  principal  divinities,  the  gods  which 
were   the   chief    objects   of  worship, 
either  in    the  main  centers  of  popu- 
lation,   or    throughout    the   country. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  to  this 
class  belong  Ammon,  Khem,  Kneph, 
Phthah,  Ra,  Osiris,  and  Neith.     Am- 
mon  was   the   chief  god  of  Thebes, 
Khem    of    Chemmis,   or    Panopolis, 
Kneph    of    Elephantine,    Phthah    of 
Memphis,  Ra  of  Heliopolis,  Osiris  of 
Abydos  and  Philae,  Neith  of  Sais.     It 
will  perhaps  be  a  better  illustration  of 
the  Egyptian  religion  to  give  a  partic- 
ular though   brief  account   of   these 
seven  deities  than  to  waste  pages  in 
generalities. 

13.  Ammon  is  said  to  have  meant, 
etymologically,    "the      concealed 
god ;  "  y  and  the  idea  of  Ammon  was 
that  of  a  recondite,  incomprehensible 


*  Bunsen's  list  consists  of — 

Chons        *Bast        *Ma  Savak 

Thoth        *Athor        Tafne       Seb 
Turn  Shu  Mentu     Netpe  ; 

Wilkinson's  of — 

*Ra  Khons      Shu          Savak 

Seb  *Anouke    Tafne     *Seneb 

Netpe          Turn          Thoth      Mentu. 
The  peculiar  names  are  marked  with  an  as- 
terisk. 

t  Manetho  ap.  Plutarch,  "  De  Isid.  et  Osir." 
s.  9 ;  lamblich,  "  De  Mysteriis,"  viii.  3. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


188] 


divinity,  remote  from  man,  hidden, 
mysterious,  the  proper  object  of  the 
profoundest  reverence.  Practically, 
this  idea  was  too  abstract,  too  high- 
flown,  too  metaphysical,  for  ordinary 
minds  to  conceive  of  it ;  and  so  Am- 
mon  was  at  an  early  date  conjoined 
with  Ra,  the  Sun,  and  worshiped  as 
Ammon-Ra,*  a  very  intelligible  god, 
neither  more  nor  less  than  the  phys- 
ical sun,  the  source  of  light  and  life, 
"  the  lord  of  existences  and  support 
of  all  things."t 

14.  Khem  was  the  generative  princi- 
ple, the  power  of  life  and  growth  in 
nature.     He  was  rudely  and  coarsely 
represented  as  a  mummied  figure,  with 
phallus   in   front,  and   forms   an   un- 
sightly object  in  the  sculptures.     He 
presided  primarily  over  the  vegetable 
world,  and  was  the  giver  of  fertility 
and  increase,  the  lord  of  the  harvest, 
and  the   patron  of  agriculture.     But 
the  human  species   and   the  various 
kinds  of  animals  were  also  under  his 
charge,  and  from  him  obtained  con- 
tinuance.    He  is  called,  "  the  king  of 
the  gods,"  "the  lifter  of  the  hand," 
"  the  lord  of  the  crown,"  "  the  power- 
ful," £  and  further  bears    the  special 
title  of  Kamutf,  "  bull  of  his  mother," 
in  allusion  to  the  relation  which  he 
bore  to  Nature. 

15.  Kneph  was  the  divine  spirit  or 
soul  considered  as  forming  the  scheme 
of  creation.     His   name  is  by  some 
connected    etymologically    with    the 
Egyptian  word  for  "  breath,"  §  which 
is   nef;    and    curious    analogies    are 
traced  between  him  and  the  third  Per- 
son of  the  Holy  Trinity  in  the  Chris- 
tian system.  ||    As  "  the  Spirit  of  God  " 
at  the  time  of  the  creation  "moved 
upon    the    face    of    the   waters,"  so 
Kneph  is   represented   as   the   deity 
who  presides  over  the  inundations.  As 
the  heavens  were  made  by  the  "  breath 
of  God's  mouth,"  so  Kneph  is  called, 


*  See  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  21, 
31,  etc. ;  vol.  iv.  pp.  n,  16,  etc. 

t  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  129,  1.  12. 

\  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  viii.  p.  142. 

§  Bunsen,  "  Egypt's  Place,"  vol.  i.  p.  375. 

tl  Wilkinson.  "  Ancient  Egyptians,"  vol.  iv. 
p.  236. 


"  the  god  who  has  made  the  sun  and 
moon  to  revolve  under  the  heaven  and 
above  the  world,  and  who  has  made 
the  world  and  all  that  is  in  it."  *  Some 
representations  exhibit  him  as  a  potter 
with  his  wheel ;  and  the  inscriptions 
accompanying  them  assign  to  him  the 
formation  of  gods  and  men.  It  is 
perhaps  as  a  procreating  principle 
that  he  is  figured  commonly  with  the 
head  of  a  ram.  Kneph  was  wor- 
shiped chiefly  in  Upper  Egypt,  at 
Elephantine  and  the  Cataracts ;  but 
he  was  acknowledged  also  at  Thebes, 
at  Antseopolis,  and  elsewhere. 

1 6.  Phthah,  whom  the  Greeks  iden- 
tified with  their  Hephaistos,  and  the 
Romans  with  their  Vulcan,  was  a  cre- 
ator of  a  more  vulgar  type  than  Kneph 
or  Khem.     He  was  an  artisan  god,  the 
actual  manipulator  of  matter,  and  di- 
rect maker  of  the  sun,  the  moon,  and 
the  earth.     He  is  called,  "  the  father 
of  the  beginnings,"  "  the  first  of  the 
gods  of  the  upper  world,"  "  he  who 
adjusts  the  world  by  his  hand,"  "  the 
lord  of   the   beautiful   countenance," 
and  "  the  lord  of  truth."  f     He  is  also 
defined  by  an  ancient  writer  \  as  "  the 
god  who  creates  with  truth."     We  find 
him  represented  under  three  quite  dif- 
ferent forms,  as  a  man  walking  or  sit- 
ting, as  a  mummied  figure,  accompan- 
ied by  "  the  emblem  of  stability,"  and 
as  a  pigmy  or  dwarf.     A  figure  of  this 
last  description  provoked  the  ridicule 
of  Cambyses,  the   Persian  conqueror 
of  Egypt,   who    "entered   the  grand 
temple  of  Phthah  at  Memphis,   and 
made    great  sport   of  the    image."  § 
Forms  of  Phthah  are  found  consist- 
ing of  two  figures  placed  back  to  back, 
and    even  of   three   figures  placed  at 
an  angle.     These  seem,  however,  to 
represent     combinations    of    Phthah 
with  other  nearly  allied  gods,  and  are 
called  commonly  "  figures  of  Phthah- 
Sokari,"  or  of  "  Phthah-Sokari-Osiris." 

17.  Ra  was  the  Egyptian  sun-god, 
and  was  especially  worshiped  at  Heli- 


*  Bunsen,  vol.  i.  p.  377. 
t  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  viii.  pp.  5-15  ; 
Birch,  "  Guide  to  the  British  Museum,"  p.  13. 
J  lamblichus,  "  De  Mysteriis,"  viii.  3. 
§  Herod,  iii.  37. 


THE  RELIGIONS  <JJt-    i  ilE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


opolis.  Obelisks,  according  to  some,* 
n- presented  his  rays,  and  were  always, 
or  usually,  erected  in  his  honor. 
Heliopolis  was  certainly  one  of  the 
places  which  were  thus  adorned,  for 
one  of  the  few  which  still  stand  erect 
in  Egypt  is  on  the  site  of  that  city. 
The  kings  for  the  most  part  consid- 
ered Ra  their  special  patron  and  pro- 
tector; nay,  they  went  so  far  as  to 
identify  themselves  with  him,  to  use 
his  titles  as  their  own,  and  to  adopt 
his  name  as  the  ordinary  prefix  to 
their  own  names  and  titles.  This  is 
believed  by  many  to  have  been  the 
origin  of  the  word  Pharaoh, f  which 
was,  it  is  thought,  the  Hebrew  render- 
ing of  Ph'  Ra  =  "  the  sun."  Ra  is 
sometimes  represented  simply  by  a 
disk,  colored  red,  or  by  such  a  disk 
with  the  ankh,  or  symbol  of  life,  at- 
tached to  it ;  but  more  commonly  he 
has  the  figure  of  a  man,  with  a  hawk's 
head,  and  above  it  the  disk,  accom- 
panied by  plumes,  or  by  a  serpent. 
The  beetle  (scarabaeus)  was  one  of 
his  emblems.  As  for  his  titles,  they 
are  too  numerous  to  mention :  the 
"  Litany  of  Ra "  %  alone  contains 
some  hundreds  of  them. 

1 8.  Osiris  was  properly  a  form  of 
Ra.  He  was  the  light  of  the  lower 
world,  the  sun  from  the  time  that  he 
sinks  below  the  horizon  in  the  west  to 
the  hour  when  he  reappears  above 
the  eastern  horizon  in  the  morning. 
This  physical  idea  was,  however,  at  a 
later  date  modified,  and  Osiris  was 
generally  recognized  as  the  perpetu- 
ally presiding  lord  of  the  lower  world, 
the  king  and  the  judge  of  Hades  or 
Amenti.  His  worship  was  universal 
throughout  Egypt,  §  but  his  chief  tem- 
ples were  at  Abydos  and  Philae.  Or- 
dinarily he  was  represented  in  a 
mummied  form  as  the  god  of  the  dead, 
but  sometimes  he  appears  as  a  living 


man,  standing  or  walking.  He  carries 
in  his  two  hands  the  crook  and  the 
flagellum  or  whip,  and  commonly 
wears  on  his  head  the  crown  of  Upper 
Egypt,  with  a  plume  of  ostrich  feather 
on  either  side  of  it.  A  special  char- 
acter of  goodness  attaches  to  him. 
We  find  him  called,  "  the  manifester 
of  good,"  "full  of  goodness  and 
truth,"  "the  beneficent  spirit,"  "be- 
neficent in  will  and  words,"  "  mild  of 
heart,"  "  and  fair  and  beloved  of  all 
who  see  him."  * 

19.  Neith,  or  Net,  the  goddess  of 
Sais,  was  identified  by  the  Greeks  f 
with  their  Athene  (Minerva),  but 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  really  a 
goddess  of  wisdom.  She  was  the  fe- 
male correspondent  of  Khem,  the 
conceptive  element  in  nature,  as  he 
was  the  generative.  Her  titles  are, 
"  the  mother,"  "  the  mistress  of 
heaven,"  "the  elder  goddess."  $  She 
is  represented  in  the  form  of  a  woman 
standing,  and  wearing  on  her  head  the 
crown  of  Lower  Egypt.  In  her  left 
hand  she  carries  a  scepter,  sometimes 
accompanied  by  a  bow  and  two  ar- 
rows ;  in  her  right  she  bears  the  ankh, 
or  symbol  of  life.  One  of  the  signs 
with  which  her  name  is  written  re- 
sembles a  shuttle;  from  which  fact, 
combined  with  her  carrying  a  bow  and 
arrpws,  she  has  been  called,  "  the  god- 
dess of  war  and  weaving."  §  Her 
worship  was  not  very  widely  spread, 
nor  is  she  often  mentioned  in  the  in- 
scriptions. 

^20.  No  part  of  the  Egyptian  religion 
was  so  much  developed  and  so  multi- 
plex as  their  sun  worship.  ||  Besides 
Ra  and  Osiris  there  were  at  least  six 


*  Zoega,  "De  Obeliscis;"  Plin.  "H.  N." 
xxxvi.  8,  s.  14. 

t  So  Wilkinson  (in  Rawlinson's  "  Herod- 
otus," vol.  ii.  p.  181,  note  i)  and  others. 
But  the  derivation  from  Pfi'ouro^  "  the  king," 
is  perhaps  as  probable. 

J  See  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  viii.  pp. 
105-128. 

§  Herod,  ii.  42,  with  Wilkinson's  note. 


*  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  iv.  pp.  99- 
103;  Wilkinson,  "Ancient  Egyptians,"  vol. 
iv.  p.  320. 

t  Plat.  "  Tim."  p.  22,  A ;  Cic.  "  De  Nat. 
Deor."  iii.  p.  248. 

J  Bunsen,  "  Egypt's  Place,"  vol.  i.  p.  386; 
Wilkinson,  "  Ancient  Egyptians,"  vol.  iv"  p. 
285. 

§  Birch,  "  Guide  to  Museum,"  p.  13. 

||  Birch  goes  as  far  as  to  say,  that  "  most 
of  the  gods  were  connected  with  the  sun,  and 
represented  that  luminary  in  its  passage 
through  the  upper  or  lower  hemisphere " 
("Guide,"  p.  n);  but  this  seems  to  be  an 
exaggeration. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORL1X 


other  deities  who  had  a  distinctly  so- 
lar character.  These  were  Shu,  Aten, 
Horus  or  Harmachis,  Turn  or  Atum, 
Khepra,  and  Mentu.  Shu  was  the 
sun's  light,  Aten  the  sun's  disk,  Har, 
or  Har-em-akhu  (Horus  or  Harma- 
chis), the  sun  at  his  rising ;  Turn  (or 
Atum)  the  same  luminary  at  his  set- 
ting ;  Khepra  was  the  life-giving  power 
of  the  sun  ;  while  Mentu  was  a  provin- 
cial sun-god,  adopted  into  the  gener- 
al pantheon.  Athor,  moreover,  the 
mother  of  Ra,  and  Isis,  the  sister  and 
wife  of  Osiris,  were  in  some  sort  sun- 
goddesses,  and  bore  upon  their  heads 
the  disk  of  Ra,  to  mark  their  close 
connection  with  the  great  luminary. 

21.  Compared  with  the  worship  of 
the  sun,  that  of  the  moon  was  quite 
secondary    and    insignificant.      Two 
gods   only,   Khons   and  Thoth,  had, 
properly  speaking,  a  lunar  character.* 
Of  these  Khons  was    the    moon-god 
simply,  while  Thoth  combined    with 
his  lunar  aspect,  somewhat  curiously, 
the  character  of  "  the  god  of  letters." 
He  was  represented  with  the  head  of 
an  ibis ;  and  the  ibis  and  cynocepha- 
lous  ape  were  sacred  to  him.     Both  he 
and  Khons  commonly  bear  on  their 
heads  a  crescent  and  disk,  emblem- 
atic respectively  of  the  new  and  the 
full  moon. 

22.  Other   deities   of  some   impor- 
tance  in   the   religious   system   were 
Maut,  the   consort   of  Ammon,   who 
represented   matter  or  nature  ;  Sati, 
the  consort  of  Kneph,  a  sort  of  Egyp- 
tian  Juno;    Sekhet,  the    consort    of 
Phthah,  usually  represented  as  lion- 
headed,  or  cat-headed  ;  Seb,  the  Egyp- 
tian   Saturn ;   Hanhar   (Onuris),    the 
Egyptian  Mars  ;  Sabak  or  Savak,  the 
crocodile-headed   god  ;  Anuke,  a  war 
goddess  ;  Nebta  (Nephthys),  sister  of 
Osiris   and   Isis ;  Nut  or  Netpe,  god- 
dess of  the  firmament  ;  and  Ma,  god- 
dess  of  truth.     The    Egyptians   had 
also  gods  of  taste  and  touch,  of  silence, 
of  writing,  of  medicine,  of  the  harvest, 
etc.     Almost  any  fact   of  nature,  al- 


*  Representations  of  Osiris  are  found  as 
Osiris- Aah  (Birch,  "  Guide  to  Museum,"  p. 
15),  or  "Osiris,  the  moon-god;"  but  these 
are  pnrelv  abnormal. 


most  any  act  of  man,  might  be  taken 
eparately  and  personified,  the  personi- 
fication  becoming  thenceforth  a  god 
or  goddess. 

23.  A  class  of  deities  possessing  a 
very  peculiar  character  remains  to  be 
noticed.      These  are  the  malevolent 
deities.     Set    or    Sutech,    the   great 
enemy  of  Osiris,  a  god  with  the  head 
of  a  griffin  or  giraffe  ;  Bes,  according 
to  some,*  the  god  of  death  ;  Taouris 
the  wife  of  Bes  ;  and  Apap,  or  Apepi, 
the   great    serpent,    generally   repre- 
sented as  slain  by  Horus.t     All  these 
were    distinctly    malignant   and   evil 
deities  ;  their  representations  were,  in 
every  case,  more  or  less  hideous  and 
grotesque  ;  they  were  all  feared  and 
hated,  but    nevertheless    worshiped ; 
their  figures   were   worn   as   charms, 
and  even  temples  were  built  in  their 
honor. 

24.  While  the  entire   pantheon   of 
Egypt  was  thus  multiform  and  mani- 
fold,   practically   the  deities  who  re- 
ceived worship  in  each  several  town 
and    district  were    but  few.      Local 
triads  were  almost  universally  recog- 
nized, and   in  each  place  its  special 
triad  monopolized,  so  to  say,  the  relig- 
ious regards  of  the  inhabitants.  $     At 
Memphis,  the  established   triad   con- 
sisted of  Phthah,   Sekhet,  and  Turn  ; 
at  Thebes,  of  Ammon- Ra,  Maut,  and 
Khons  ;  at  Heliopolis  of  Ra,  Nebhept 
(=  Athor),    and  Horus  ;  at   Elephan- 
tine of  Kneph,  Sati,  and  Anuke  ;  at 
Abydos,  of   Osiris,  Isis,   and  Horus  ; 
at    Ombos,    of    Savak,    Athor,    and 
Khons ;  at  Silsilis,  of  Ra,  Phthah,  and 
the  Nile  god,  Hapi  or  Neilus.     Some- 
times a  fourth  god  or  goddess  was  as- 
sociated with  the  principal  three,  as 
Bast   at  Memphis,  Neith   at  Thebes, 
Nephthys  at  Abydos,  and  Hak  at  Ele- 
phantine ;  but  the  fourth  was  always 
quite    subordinate.      Occasionally   a 


*  So  Wilkinson  ("Ancient  Egyptians," 
vol.  iv.  p.  431).  Others  regard  Bes  as  sim- 
ply a  name  of  Set  or  Typhon  (Birch,  "  Dic- 
tionary of  Hieroglyphics,"  p.  581). 

1  Wilkinson,  "  Ancient  Egyptians,"  "  Sup- 
plement," pi.  42. 

|  "  Egypt  from  the  Earliest  Times,"  "  In- 
troduction," p.  xi. ;  Wilkinson,  "  Ancient 
Egyptians,"  vol.  iv.  pp.  230-233. 


8     j86j 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


city  recognized  more  than  one  triad  ; 
for  instance,  Silsilis  held  in  honor, 
besides  Ra,  Phthah,  and  Hapi,  a  triad 
consisting  of  Set,  Thoth,  and  Netpe ; 
and  another  comprising  Ammon,  Ra, 
and  Savak. 

25.  Another  peculiar  feature  of  the 
Egyptian    religion,    and    one    which, 
though  it  may  have  had  some  redeem- 1 
ing  points,*  must  be   pronounced  on 
the  whole  low  and  degrading,  was  the 
worship  of  live  animals.     In  the  first 
instance,  certain  animals  seem  to  have 
been  assumed  as  emblems  of  certain 
gods,t    from    some    real    or  fancied 
analogy ;    after   which,    in  course  of 
time,  the  animals  themselves  came  to 
be  regarded  as  sacred  ;  specimens  of 
them  were  attached  to  the  temples, 
kept  in  shrines,  and  carefully  fed  and 
riurtured  during  life,  and  at  death  em- 
balmed and  buried  in  sacred  reposi- 
tories, while  the  entire  species  had  a 
sacred  character  assigned  to  it  univer- 
sally or  partially.     Animals  of  these 
kinds  it  was  unlawful  to  kill,  either  in 
Egypt  generally,  or  within  the  limits 
within  which   they   were  honored;  if 
they  died,  their  death  was  mourned, 
and   they    were   carefully  buried  by 
those  who  found  them,    or  to   whom 
they  belonged,  with  more  or  less  cere- ! 
mony.t      Of   animals  universally  sa- j 
cred  the  principal  were  cows  and  heif- 
ers, which  were  sacred  to  Athor  ;  cy- 
nocephalous  apes  and   ibises,    which 
were   sacred   to   Thoth  ;  cats,  which 
were  sacred  to  Bast ;    hawks,   which 
were  sacred  to  Ra  ;  and  perhaps  asps, 
though  this  is  uncertain. §     Sheep,  es- 
pecially rams,  were  generally  regarded 
as  sacred,  being  emblems  of  Kneph : 
and  dogs,  though  not  assigned  to  any 
special  deity,  held  a  similar  position. 

26.  The  worship  of  other  animals 

*  The  sacred  character  of  cows  and  heifers 
secured  a  continual  increase  in  the  stock  of 
cattle ;  that  of  cats  and  ichneumons,  of  ibises, 
hawks,  and  vultures,  preserved  those  useful 
animals,  of  which  the  two  former  kept  the 
houses  free  from  mice  and  snakes,  while  the 
three  latter  were  admirable  scavengers. 

t  As  the  vulture  of  Maut,  the  ibis  of  Thoth, 
and  the  ram  of  Kneph,  etc. 

|  Herod,  ii.  66,  67,  with*Wilkinson's  notes. 

§  So  AVilkinson,  "Ancient  Egyptians," 
vol.  v.  p.  ^43. 


had  a  more  local  character.  Lions, 
emblems  of  Horus  and  Turn,  were  sa- 
cred at  Leontopolis  ;  crocodiles,  em- 
blems of  Savak,  at  Crocodilopolis  and 
in  the  Fayoum  generally  ;  wolves  or 
jackals,  emblems  of  Anubis,  at  Lyco- 
polis  ;  shrew-mice,  emblems  of  Maut, 
at  Buto  and  Athribis ;  hippopotami 
emblems  of  Set  and  Taouris,  at  Pa- 
premis  ;  antelopes  at  Coptos  ;  ibexes 
and  frogs  at  Thebes  ;  goats  at  Mendu  ; 
vultres  at  Eileithyia  ;  fish  at  Latopolis  ; 
ichneumons  at  Heracleopolis ;  and 
pther  animals  elsewhere.  Each  town 
was  jealous  for  the  honor  of  its  special 
favorites ;  and  quarrels  broke  out 
between  city  and  city,  or  between 
province  and  province,  in  connection 
with  their  sacred  animals,  which  led 
in  some  cases  to  violent  and  prolonged 
conflicts,  in  others  to  a  smoldering 
but  permanent  hostility.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  say  how  much  of  the  religious 
sentiment  of  the  nation  was  absorbed 
by  these  unworthy  objects  ;  but  there 
is  no  just  ground  for  believing  that 
the  animal  worship,  absurd  as  it  may 
have  been,  interfered  seriously  with 
the  reverence  and  respect  which  were 
paid  to  the  proper  deities. 

27.  The  worst,  and  most  pronounced 
form  of  the  animal  worship  has  still 
to  be  mentioned.  In  some  instances 
the  belief  was,  not  that  a  particular 
class  of  animals  had  a  sacred  charac- 
ter, but  that  a  deity  absolutely  became 
incarnate  in  an  individual  animal, 
and  so  remained  till  its  death.  Ani- 
mals to  which  this  was  supposed  to 
have  happened  were  actual  gods,  and 
received  the  most  profound  venera- 
tion that  it  was  possible  to  pay. 
Such  were  the  Apis  bulls,  of  which  a 
succession  was  maintained  at  Mem- 
phis, in  the  temple  of  Phthah,  incarna- 
tions, according  to  some,  of  Phthah,* 
according  to  others  of  Osiris,t  which 
were  among  the  objects  of  worship 
most  venerated  by  the  Egyptians. 
Such,  again,  were  the  Mnevis  bulls 
of  Heliopolis,  incarnations  of  Ra  or 


*  See  Birch,  "  Egypt  from  the  Earliest 
Times,"  "  Introduction,"  p.  xii. 

t  Wilkinson,  in  Rawlinson's  "  Herodotus," 
vol.  ii.  p.  428,  note  2. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 

Turn,  and  the  Bacis  or  Pacis  bulls  of  I  echo  with  their  joyous  acclamations. 
Hermonthis,    incarnations  of   Horus.  |  The  worship    was  'concluctecj   chiefly 


These  beasts,  maintained  at  the  cost 
of  the  priestly  communities  in  the 
great  temples  of  their  respective  cities 
were  perpetually  adored  and  prayed 
to  by  thousands  during  their  lives, 
and  at  their  deaths  were  entombed 
with  the  utmost  care  in  huge  sarcoph- 
agi, while  all  Egypt  went  into  mourn- 
ing on  account  of  their  decease. 

28.  The  external  manifestation  of 
religion  in  Egypt  was  magnificent 
and  splendid.  Nowhere  did  religious 
ceremonial  occupy  a  larger  part  in 
the  life  of  a  people.  In  each  city  and 
town,  one  or  more  grand  structures 
upreared  themselves  above  the  rest 
of  the  buildings,  enriched  with  all 
that  Egyptian  art  could  supply  of 
painted  and  sculptured  decoration, 
dedicated  to  the  honor  and  bearing 
the  name  of  some  divinity  or  divinities. 
The  image  of  the  great  god  of  the 
place  occupied  the  central  shrine,  ac- 
companied in  most  instances  by  two 
or  three  contemplar  gods  or  goddesses. 
Around  were  the  chambers  of  the 
priests,  and  further  off  court  after 
court,  some  pillared,  some  colonnaded, 
and  all  more  or  less  adorned  with 
sculpture  and  painting,  the  entrance 
to  them  lying  through  long  avenues 
of  sphinxes  or  obelisks,  which  con- 
ducted to  the  propylaea,  two  gigantic 
towers  flanking  the  main  doorway.* 
A  perpetual  ceremonial  of  the  richest 
kind  went  on  within  the  temple  walls  ; 
scores  of  priests,  with  shaven  heads 
and  clean  white  linen  garments,! 
crowded  the  courts  and  corridors ; 
long  processions  made  their  way  up 
or  down  the  sphinx  avenues,  incense 
floated  in  the  air,  strains  of  music  re- 
sounded without  pause,  hundreds  of 
victims  were  sacrificed ;  everywhere 
a  holiday  crowd,  in  bright  array, 
cheerful  and  happy,  bore  its  part  in 
the  festival,  and  made  the  courts  re- 


*  These  towers  have  been  compared,  with 
some  reason,  to  those  which  commonly  adorn 
the  western  fagade  of  our  cathedrals.  (Fer- 
gusson,  "  History  of  Architecture,"  vol.  i.  p. 


by   means   of   rhythmic    lit^toes 
hymns,  in  which   prayer   an&v 


t  Herod,  ii.  37. 


were  blended,  the  latter  predominat- 
ing.*    Ceremonv  followed  cerSfoW*  " 


ing.*  Ceremony  followed 
The  calendar  was  crowded  with  fes- 
tivals ;  and  a  week  rarely  passed  with-  * 
out  the  performance  of  some  special 
rite,  some  annual  observance,  having 
its  own  peculiar  attractions.  Foreign- 
ers beheld  with  astonishment  the  al- 
most perpetual  round  of  religious  ser- 
vices, which  engaged,  or  at  any  rate 
seemed  to  engage,  the  main  attention 
of  all  ranks  of  the  people. 

29.  Belief  in  a  future  life  was  a  main 
principle  of  the  Egyptian  religion. 
Immediately  after  death,  the  soul,  it 
was  taught,  descended  into  the  lower 
world  (Amenti),  and  was  conducted 
to  the  "  Hall  of  Truth,"  where  it  was 
judged  in  the  presence  of  Osiris,  and 
of  his  forty-two  assessors,  the  "  Lords 
of  Truth,"  and  judges  of  the  dead. 
Anubis,  the  son  of  Osiris,  who  was 
called  "  the  director  of  the  weight," 
brought  forth  a  pair  of  scales,  and 
after  placing  in  one  scale  a  figure  or 
emblem  of  Truth,  set  in  the  other 
a  vase  containing  the  good  deeds  of 
the  deceased,  Thoth  standing  by  the 
while,  with  a  tablet  in  his  hand, 
whereon  to  record  the  result. t  If 
the  good  deeds  were  sufficient,  if  they 
weighed  down  the  scale  wherein  they 
were  placed,  then  the  happy  soul  was 
permitted  to  enter  "  the  boat  of  the 
sun,"  and  was  conducted  by  good 
spirits  to  the  Elysian  fields  (Aahlu), 
to  the  "  Pools  of  Peace,"  and  the 
dwelling-places  of  the  blest.  If,  on 
the  contrary,  the  good  deeds  were 
insufficient,  if  the  scale  remained 
suspended  in  the  air,  then  the  unhappy 
soul  was  sentenced,  according  to  the 


*See  the  "Litany  of  Ra,"  and  the 
"  Hymns  "  to  Osiris,  Amen,  Amen-Ra,  and 
Ra-Harmachis,  published  in  "  Records  of  the 
Past,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  105-134;  vol.  iv.  pp.  99- 
104;  vol.  vi.  pp.  99-101 ;  and  vol.  viii.  pp.  131- 

I34- 

t  Wilkinson,  "  Ancient  Egyptians,"  vol. 
v.  pp.  314,  315.  Representations  of  the 
scene  are  frequent  in  the  tombs,  and  in  the 
many  copies  of  the  "  Ritual  of  the  Dead." 


10    [86] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


degree  of  its  ill  deserts,  to  go  through 
a  round  of  transmigrations  in  the 
bodies  of  animals  more  or  less  un- 
clean ;  the  number,  nature,  and  dura- 
tion of  the  transmigrations  depending 
on  the  degree  of  the  deceased's  demer- 
its, and  the  consequent  length  and  se- 
verity of  the  punishment  which  he  de- 
served, or  the  purification  which  he 
needed.  Ultimately,  if  after  many 
trials  sufficient  purity  was  not  attained, 
the  wicked  soul,  which  had  proved  it- 
self incurable,  underwent  a  final  sen- 
tence at  the  hands  of  Osiris,  judge  of 
the  dead,  and,  being  condemned  to 
complete  and  absolute  annihilation, 
was  destroyed  upon  the  steps  of 
Heaven  by  Shu,  the  Lord  of  Light.* 
The  good  soul,  having  first  been  freed 
from  its  infirmities  by  passing  through 
the  basin  of  purgatorial  fire  guarded 
by  the  four  ape-faced  genii,  was  made 
the  companion  of  Osiris,  for  a  period 
of  three  thousand  years,  after  which 
it  returned  from  Amenti,  re-entered 
its  former  body,  rose  from  the  dead, 
and  lived  once  more  a  human  life 
upon  the  earth.  This  process  was 
gone  through  again  and  again,  until 
a  certain  mystic  cycle  of  years  be- 
came complete,  when,  to  crown  all, 
the  good  and  blessed  attained  the 
final  joy  of  union  with  God,  being 
absorbed  into  the  divine  essence 
from  which  they  had  once  emanated, 
and  so  attaining  the  full  perfection 
and  true  end  of  their  existence. 

30.  With  their  belief  in  a  future 
life,  and  their  opinions  regarding  the 
fate  of  good  and  bad  souls,  were  bound 
up  in  the  closest  way  their  arrange- 
ments with  respect  to  dead  bodies,  and 
their  careful  and  elaborate  prepara- 
tion of  tombs.  As  each  man  hoped 
to  be  among  those  who  would  be  re- 
ceived into  Aahlu,  and  after  dwelling 
with  Osiris  for  three  thousand  years 
would  return  to  earth,  and  re-enter 
their  old  bodies,  it  was  requisite  that 
bodies  should  be  enabled  to  resist  de- 
cay for  that  long  period.  Hence  the 
entire  system  of  embalming,  of  swath- 
ing in  linen,  and  then  burying  in  stone 

*  Birch,  "Guide  to  Museum,"  pp.  14,  15. 


sarcophagi  covered  with  lids  that  it 
was  scarcely  possible  to  lift,  or  even 
to  move.  Hence  if  a  man  was  wealthy, 
tie  spent  enormous  sums  on  making 
himself  a  safe  and  commodious,  an  ele- 
gant and  decorated  tomb ;  either  pil- 
.ng  a  pyramid  over  his  sarcophagus,  or 
excavating  deep  into  the  solid  rock,  and 
preparing  for  his  resting-place  a  remote 
chamber  at  the  end  of  a  long  series  of 
galleries.  With  the  notion,  probably, 
that  it  would  be  of  use  to  him  in  h'is 
passage  through  Amenti  to  Aahlu,  he 
took  care  to  have  the  most  important 
passages  from  the  sacred  book  enti- 
tled the  "  Ritual  of  the  Dead,"  either 
inscribed  on  the  inner  part  of  the  coffin 
in  which  he  was  to  lie,  or  painted  on 
his  mummy  bandages,  or  engraved 
upon  the  inner  walls  of  his  tomb.* 
Sometimes  he  even  had  a  complete 
copy  of  the  book  buried  with  him,  no 
doubt  for  reference,  if  his  memory 
failed  to  supply  him  with  the  right  in- 
vocation or  prayer  at  the  dangerous 
parts  of  his  long  journey. 

31.  The  thought  of  death,  of  judg- 
ment, of  a  sentence  to  happiness  or 
misery  according  to  the  life  led  on 
earth,  was  thus  familiar  to  the  ordi- 
nary Egyptian.  His  theological  no- 
tions were  confused  and  fantastical ; 
but  he  had  a  strong  and  abiding  con- 
viction that  his  fate  after  death  would 
depend  on  his  conduct  during  his  life 
on  earth,  and  especially  on  his  ob- 
servance of  the  moral  law  and  per- 
formance of  his  various  duties.f 


*Bunsen,  "Egypt's  Place,"  vol.  v.  pp.  127- 
129. 

t  See  Birch,  "Egypt  from  the  Earliest 
Times,"  p.  46  : — "The  Egyptian  enjoyed  all 
the  pleasures  of  existence,  and  delighted  more 
in  the  arts  of  peace  than  war.  In  his  relig- 
ious belief  the  idea  of  a  future  state,  and  prob- 
ably of  the  transmigration  of  souls,  was  ever 
present  to  his  mind,  while — and  his  long  life 
was  one  preparation  for  death — to  be  devoted 
or  pious  to  the  gods,  obedient  to  the  wishes 
of  his  sovereign,  affectionate  toward  his  wife 
and  children,  were  the  maxims  inculcated  for 
his  domestic  or  inner  life.  Beyond  that  cir- 
cle his  duties  to  mankind  were  comprised  in 
giving  bread  to  the  hungry,  drink  to  the 
thirsty,  clothes  to  the  naked,  oil  to  the 
wounded,  and  burial  to  the  dead.  On  the  ex- 
ercise of  good  works  he  rested  his  hopes  of 
passing  the  ordeal  of  the  future  and  great 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  \Y;:RL1>. 


11 


32.  The  better  educated  Egyptian 
had  a  firmer  grasp  of  the  truths  of 
natural  religion.     Below  the  popular 
mythology  there  lay  concealed  from 
general  view,  but  open  to  the  educated 
classes,   a  theological   system   which 
was  not  far  removed  from  pure  "  nat- 
ural   theology."     The   real   essential 
unity  of  the  divine  nature  was  taught 
and   insisted   on.     The   sacred  texts 
spoke  of  a  single  being,  "  the  sole  pro- 
ducer of   all   things   in   heaven   and 
earth,  himself  not  produced  of  any," 
"  the  only  true  living  God,  self-origi- 
nated," "  who  exists  from  the  begin- 
ning," "  who  has  made  all  things,  but 
has  not  himself  been  made."  *     This 
being  seems  never  to  have  been  rep- 
resented by  any  material,  even  sym- 
bolical form.f     It  is  thought  that  he 
had  no  name,  or,  if   he   had,  that  it 
must  have  been  unlawful  to  pronounce 
or  write  it.$    Even  Ammon,  the  "  con- 
cealed God,"  was  a  mere  external  ad- 
umbration of  this  mysterious  and  un- 
approachable deity.     He  was  a  pure 
spirit,    perfect    in  every  respect,  all- 
wise,  all-mighty,  supremely,  perfectly 
good. 

33.  Those  who  grasped  this  great 
truth  understood  clearly  that  the  many 
gods  of  the  popular  mythology  were 
mere  names,  personified  attributes  of 
the  one  true  Deity,  or  parts  of  the  nat- 
ure which  he  had  created,  considered 
as   informed    and    inspired   by  him. 
Num  or  Kneph  represented  the  crea- 
tive mind  Phthah  the  creative  hand, 
or  act  of  creating ;  Maut  represented 
matter,  Ra  the  sun,  Khons  the  moon, 
Seb  the  earth,  Khem  the  generative 
power  in  nature,  Keith  the  conceptive 
power,  Nut  the  upper  hemisphere  of 
heaven,  Athor  the  lower  world  or  un- 
der hemisphere ;    Thoth    personified 


judgment,  and  reaching  the  Aahlu  or  Elysian 
fields,  and  Pools  of  Peace  of  the  Egyptian 
paradise." 

*  Lenormant,  "  Manuel  d'Histoire  An- 
cienne,"  vol.  i.  p.  522.  Similar  phrases  are 
frequent  in  all  the  religious  inscriptions. 
(See  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  129- 
132;  vol.  iv.  pp.  99-100;  vol.  vi.  100,  etc.))' 

t  Wilkinson,  "  Ancient  Egyptians,"  vol.  iv. 
p.  178. 
Ibid. 


the  divine  wisdom,  Ammon  the  divine 
mysteriousness  or  incomprehensibility, 
Osiris  the  divine  goodness.  It  may 
not  be  always  easy  to  say  what  is  the 
exact  quality,  act,  or  part  of  nature 
which  is  represented  by  each  god  and 
goddess ;  but  the  principle  was  clear 
and  beyond  a  doubt.  No  educated 
Egyptian  priest  certainly,  probably  no 
educated  layman,  conceived  of  the 
popular  gods  as  really  separate  and 
distinct  beings.  All  knew  that  there 
was  but  one  god,  and  understood  that 
when  worship  was  offered  to  Khem, 
or  Phthah,  or  Maut,  or  Thoth,  or  Am- 
mon, the  one  god  was  worshiped  un- 
der some  one  of  his  forms,  or  in  some 
one  of  his  aspects.  Hence,  in  the  sol- 
emn hymns  and  chants,  which  were 
composed  by  the  priests  to  be  used  in 
the  various  festivals,  the  god  who  is 
for  the  time  addressed  receives  all  the 
highest  titles  of  honor,  and  even  has 
the  names  of  other  gods  freely  assigned 
to  him,  as  being  in  some  sort  identical 
with  them.  Thus  in  one  hymn,  Hapi, 
the  Nile  god,  is  invoked  as  Ammon 
and  Phthah;*  in  another,  Osiris  as 
Ra  and  Thoth  ;  f  while  in  a  third  Ra 
is  Khem  and  Ammon,  Turn  and  Horus 
and  Khepra  all  in  one,$  and  though 
spoken  of  as  "  begotten  of  Phthah,"  § 
is  "the  good  god,"  "the  chief  of  all 
the  gods,"  "  the  ancient  of  heaven," 
"  the  lord  of  all  existences,"  the  sup- 
port of  all  things."  |j 

34.  It  is  not  altogether  easy  to  say 
what  the  educated  Egyptian  believed 
with  respect  to  evil.  The  myth  of 
Osiris  represented  him  as  persecuted 
by  his  brother,  Set  or  Sutech,  who 
murdered  him  and  cut  up  his  body 
into  several  pieces,  after  which  he 
was  made  war  upon  by  Horus,  Osiris' 
son,  and  in  course  of  time  deposed 
and  thrust  down  to  darkness.lT  In 
the  latter  mythology  Set  and  Bes, 
Taouris  and  Apepi  were  distinctly 


*  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  iv.  p.  107,  11- 
4  and  n. 

t  Ibid.  p.  103,  par.  24,  ad  fin. 

\  Ibid.  vol.  h.  pp.  130,  131,  and  133. 

§  Ibid.  p.  129, 1.  20. 

I!  Ibid.  11.  2-12. 

IT  Wilkinson,  "  Ancient  Egyptians,"  vol.  ir. 
PP-  329-333- 


-     [901 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


malignant  beings,  personifications, 
apparently,  of  an  evil  principle ;  and 
from  the  inscriptions  and  papyri  of 
this  period,  we  should  gather  that 
the  Egyptian  religion  was  dualist ic, 
and  comprised  the  idea  of  a  constant 
and  interminable  struggle  between 
the  powers  of  light  and  darkness, 
of  good  and  evil ;  a  struggle  in  which 
there  was  some  superiority  on  the 
part  of  good,  but  no  complete  victory, 
not  even  a  very  decided  preponder- 
ance. On  the  other  hand,  as  we  go 
back  and  examine  carefully  the  more 
ancient  monuments  and  the  earlier 
writings,  we  find  less  and  less  trace 
of  this  antagonism;  we  find  Set  or 
Sutech  spoken  of  as  "great,"  "glo- 
rious ; ?>  *  we  find  that  the  kings  iden- 
tify themselves  with  him,f  build  him 
magnificent  temples,  and  make  him 
numerous  offerings. $  It  is  doubtful 
whether  at  this  time  any  notion  existed 
of  evil  or  malignancy  attaching  to  Set. 
If  it  did,  we  must  suppose  the  early 
creed  to  have  been  that  "the  bad 
was  a  necessary  part  of  the  universal 
system,  and  inherent  in  all  things 
equally  with  the  good  ;  "  §  and  so, 
that  divine  honors  were  due  to  the 
gods  representing  the  principles  of 
disorder  and  evil  no  less  than  to  those 
representing  the  opposite  principles. 
The  change  of  view  with  regard  to 
Set  may  have  been  connected  to  some 
extent  with  national  rivalries,  for  Set 
was,  beyond  a  doubt,  the  special  god 
of  the  Hyksos,||  the  foreign  con- 
querors of  Egypt,  whom  after-ages 
detested,  and  also  of  the  Khita  or 
Hittites,1[  with  whom  the  Pharaohs  of 
the  eighteenth,  nineteenth,  and  twen- 
tieth dynasties  were  engaged  in  con- 
stant hostilities. 

35.  It    has    been    maintained    by 


*  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  iv.  p.  29. 

t  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  76;  vol.  viii.  p.  75. 

\  Ibid.  vol.  iv.  p.  27  ;  vol.  viii.  pp.  27-31. 

§  So  Wilkinson, "  Ancient  Egyptians,"  vol. 
iv.  p.  423. 

II  Birch,  "Egypt from  the  Earliest  Times," 
p.  75;  "Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  viii.  p. 

'  .  V  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  iv.  pp.  31, 32. 


some  that  the  religion  of  the  educated 
Egyptians  comprised  a  recognition 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  The 
learned  Cudworth  in  the  seventeenth 
century  undertook  to  prove  that  a 
doctrine  closely  resembling  the  Chris- 
tian had  been  taught  by  the  Egyptian 
priests  many  centuries  before  Christ,* 
and  some  moderns  have  caught  at  his 
statements,  and  laid  it  down  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  maybe  traced 
to  an  Egyptian  source.  But  there  is 
really  not  the  slightest  ground  for 
this  assertion.  Cudworth's  argu- 
ments were  long  ago  met  and  refuted 
by  Mosheim  ;  f  and  modern  investiga- 
tion of  the  Egyptian  remains  has  but 
confirmed  Mosheim's  conclusions. 
The  Egyptians  held  the  unity  of  God  ; 
but  their  unity  had  within  it  no  trinity. 
God  with  them  was  absolutely  one  in 
essence,  and  when  divided  up,  was 
divided,  not  into  three,  but  into  a 
multitude  of  aspects.  It  is  true  that 
they  had  a  fancy  for  triads ;  but  a 
triad  is  not  a  Trinity.  The  triads  are 
not  groups  of  persons,  but  of  attrib- 
utes ;  the  three  are  not  coequal,  but 
distinctly  the  reverse,  the  third  in  the 
triad  being  always  subordinate ;  nor 
is  the  division  regarded  as  in  any  case 
exhaustive  of  the  divine  nature,  or  ex- 
clusive of  other  divisions.  Moreover, 
as  already  observed,  the  triad  is  fre- 
quently enlarged  by  the  addition  of  a 
fourth  person  or  character,  who  is 
associated  as  closely  with  the  other 
three  as  they  are  -with  each  other. 
Cudworth's  view  must  therefore  be 
set  aside  as  altogether  imaginary ; 
and  the  encomiast  of  the  Egyptian 
religion  must  content  himself  with 
pointing  out  that  a  real  monotheism 
underlay  the  superficial  polytheism, 
without  requiring  us  to  believe  that 
even  the  wisest  of  the  priests  had  any 
knowledge  of  the  greatest  of  all  Chris- 
tian mysteries,  t 


*  See  the  "  Intellectual  System  of  the  Uni- 
verse,1' ch.  v.  p.  413. 

t  In  the  Latin  translation  of  Cudworth's 
great  work,  notes  to  p.  413. 

\  See  Latin  translation  of  Cudworth's  great 
work,  p.  28. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


191]     13- 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE       RELIGION     OF     THE     ASSYRIANS 
AND   BABYLONIANS. 

"  Bel   boweth  down,  Nebo    stoopeth." — 
ISAIAH  xlvi.  i. 
"  Merodach  is  broken  in  pieces." — JER.  1.  2. 

36.  THE  Babylonian  and  Assyrian 
polytheism  differed  from  the  Egyp- 
tian, in  the  first  place,  by  being  less 
multitudinous,*  and  in  the  second, 
by  having  far  more  than  the  Egyp- 
tian, an  astral  character.  The  Meso- 
potamian  system  was,  moreover,  so 
far  as  appears,  what  the  Egyptian  was 
not,  a  belief  in  really  distinct  gods. 
The  great  personages  of  the  pantheon 
have  for  the  most  part  their  own  pe- 
culiar offices  and  attributes  ;  they  do 
not  pass  the  one  into  the  other  ;  they 
clo  not  assume  each  other's  names  ; 
they  do  not  combine  so  as  to  produce 
a  single  deity  out  of  several.  We 
have  no  indication  in  the  literary  re- 
mains of  Babylon  or  Assyria  of  any 
esoteric  religion,  no  evidence  on  which 
we  can  lay  it  down  that  the  concep- 
tions of  the  educated  upon  religious 
subjects  differed  seriously  from  those 
of  the  lowest  ranks  of  worshipers.f 
Berosus,  who  was  a  Chaldaean  priest, 
and  who  should,  therefore,  if  there 
was  any  such  system,  have  been 
well  acquainted  with  it,  has  in  his  ex- 
tant fragments  nothing  monotheistic, 
nothing  to  distinguish  his  religious 
views  from  those  of  the  mass  of  his 
countrymen.  According  to  all  ap- 
pearance, the  religion  of  the  Baby- 
lonians and  Assyrians  was  thus  a  real 
polytheism,  a  worship  of  numerous 
divinities,  whom  it  was  not  thought 
necessary  to  trace  to  a  single  stock,! 

*  It  is  true  that  the  inscriptions  speak  in  a 
vague  way  of  "  four  thousand,"  and  even  of 
the  "  five  thousand  gods  "  ("  Records  of  the 
Past,"  vol.  vii.  p.  128  ;  Rawlinson,  "Ancient 
Monarchies,"  vol.  i.  p.  155,  note  9).  But, 
practically,  there  are  not  more  than  about 
twenty  deities  who  obtain  frequent  mention. 

t  The  late  Mr.  Fox  Talbot  expressed  in 
1873  a  somewhat  different  opinion.  (See  the 
"Transactions  of  the  Society  of  Biblical 
Archaeology,"  vol.  ii.  p.  35.)  But  it  does  not 
appear  to  me  that  he  made  out  his  case. 

$  See  the  Author's  "  Ancient  Monarchies," 
vol.  i.  p.  142. 


who  were  essentially  on  a  par  the  one 
with  the  other,  and  who  divided  among 
them  the  religious  regards  of  the  peo- 
ple. 

37.  An  account  of  the  Assyrian  and 
Babylonian  religion  must  thus  be,  in 
the  main,  an  account  of  their  pantheon. 
From   the   character  of  their  gods, 
from   the   actions  and   attributes  as- 
signed to   them,   from    the  material 
representations     under    which    they 
showed  them  forth,  we  must  gather 
the  tone  of  their  religious  thought, 
the  nature  of  the  opinions  which  they 
entertained  concerning  the  mysterious 
powers  above  them  and  beyond  them, 
whom  they  recognized  as  divine  be- 
ings. 

38.  In  each  country,  at  the  head  of 
the  pantheon  stood   a  god,  not  the 
origin  of  the  others,  nor  in  any  real 
sense  the  fountain  of  divinity,  but  of 
higher  rank  and  dignity  than  the  rest 
primus  inter  pares,  ordinarily  named 
first,  and  assigned  the  titles  of  great- 
est honor,  and  forming  the  principal 
or  at  least  the  highest  object  of  wor- 
ship both  to   the  kings   and  people. 
This  deity  is,  in  Assyria,  Asshur ;  in 
Babylonia,  II  or  Ra.     Some  critics  * 
are  of  opinion  that  the  two  gods  are 
essentially  one,  that  the  Assyrian  As- 
shur is  neither  more  nor  less  than  II 
or  Ra  localized  and  regarded  as  the 
special  god  of  Assyria,  the  protector 
of  the  Assyrian  territory  and  the  tute- 
lary divinity  of  the    Assyrian    kings. 
But  this  view  is  not  generally  accepted 
and  seems  to  rest  upon  no  sure  foun- 
dation.    There  is  a  marked  difference 
of  character  and  position  between  the 
Babylonian  II  and  the  Assyrian  As- 
shur.    II  in  the  Babylonian  system  is 
dim  and  shadowy ;  his  attributes  are, 
comparatively    speaking,    indistinct ; 
and  his  very  name  is  not  of  frequent 
occurrence. f      Asshur  in    the  Assyr- 
ian system  is,  of  all  the  gods,  by  far 


*As  M.  Lenormant.  (See  his  "Manuel 
d'Histoire  Ancienne,"  vol.  ii.  p.  182.) 

t  In  the  six  Assyrian  volumes  of  "  Records 
of  the  Past,"  I  find  the  name  of  II  (or  El), 
only  four  times  (vol.  v.  pp.  21,  129;  vol.  vii. 
pp.  95,  96).  In  two  of  these  places  it  seems 
to  stand  for  Bel,  who  is  called  Bel-El  some- 
times (Ibid,  vol.  xi.  p.  24). 


14     [92] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


the  most  pronounced  and  prominent 
figure.  No  name  occurs  so  often  as 
his ;  no  god  has  attributes  so  clear- 
ly marked  and  positive.  On  these 
grounds  it  has  been  generally  held, 
that  the  two  are  not  to  be  identified, 
but  to  be  kept  distinct,  and  to  be  re- 
garded as  respectively  peculiar  to  the 
two  nations.  We  proceed,  therefore, 
to  speak  of  them  separately. 

39.  II  (or  Ra)  was,  as  already  re- 
marked, a  somewhat  shadowy  being. 
There  is  a  vagueness  about  the  name 
itself,   which    means   simply  "  god," 
and  can  scarcely  be  said  to  connote 
any  particular  attribute.     The  Baby- 
lonians never  represent  his  form,  and 
they  frequently  omit  him   from  lists 
which  seem  to  contain  all  the  other 
principal    gods.*     Yet  he   was   cer- 
tainly regarded   as  the   head  of   the 
pantheon,  and  in   the   most   ancient 
times   must  have  been  acknowledged 
as  the  tutelary  deity  of  Babylon  itself, 
which  received  its  name  of  Bab-il  (in 
Accadian,  Ka-ra\  meaning  "  the  Gate 
of  II,"  from  him.     He  seems  to  have 
had  no  special  temple,  being  probably 
worshiped  in  all  temples  by  the  few 
persons  who  were  his  votaries.     His 
name  was,  occasionally,  but  not  very 
frequently,   used   as    an   element   in 
the  personal  appellations  of   Babylo- 
nians, f 

40.  Asshur,  the  Assyrian  substitute 
for  II  or  Ra,  was  primarily  and  espe- 
cially the  tutelary  deity  of  Assyria  and 
of  the  Assyrian  monarchs.    The  land 
of  Assyria  bears  his   name   without 
any  modification  ;  its  inhabitants  are 
i;his  servants  "or  "his  people;"  its 
troops  "  the  armies   of  the  god   As- 
shur ; "  its  enemies  "  the  enemies  of 
Asshur."     As  for  the  kings,  they  stand 
connected  with  him  in  respect  of  al- 
most everything  which  they  do     He 
places  them  upon  the  throne,  firmly 


*  As,  for  instance,  that  of  Agu-kak-rimi  in 
the  inscription  published  in  vol.  vii.  of  the 
"  Records,"  pp.  7,  8,  where  ten  "  great  gods" 
are  enumerated,  viz. :  Anu  and  Anunit,  Bel 
and  Beltis,  Hea  and  Davjdna,  ZSra  (Zir-ba 
nit  ? ),  Sin,  Shamas,  and  Merodach,  but  no 
mention  is  made  of  II. 

t  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.iii.  p.  15  ;  vol. 
ix.  p.  99 ;  etc. 


establishes  them  in  the  government, 
lengthens  the  years  of  their  reigns, 
preserves  their  power,  protects  their 
Forts  and  armies,  directs  their  expe- 
ditions, gives  them  victory  on  the  day 
of  battle,  makes  their  name  cele- 
brated, multiplies  their  offspring 
greatly,  and  the  like.  To  him  they 
look  for  the  fulfillment  of  all  then- 
wishes,  and  especially  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  their  sons,  and  their  sons' 
sons,  on  the  Assyrian  throne  to  the 
remotest  ages.  Their  usual  phrase 
when  speaking  of  him  is,  "  Asshur, 
my  lord."  They  represent  themselves 
as  passing  their  lives  in  his  service. 
It  is  to  spread  his  worship  that  they 
carry  on  their  wars.  They  fight,  rav- 
age, destroy  in  his  name.  Finally, 
when  they  subdue  a  country,  they  are 
careful  to  "  set  up  the  emblems  of 
Asshur,"  and  to  make  the  conquered 
people  conform  to  his  laws.* 

41.  The  ordinary  titles  of  Asshur 
are,  "  the  great  lord,"  "  the  king  of 
all  the  gods,"  "  he  who  rules  supreme 
over  the  gods."  He  is  also  called, 
occasionally,  "  the  father  of  the  gods," 
although  that  is  a  title  which  belongs 
more  properly  to  Bel.  He  is  figured 
as  a  man  with  a  horned  cap,  and 
often  carrying  a  bow,  issuing  from  the 
middle  of  a  winged  circle,  and  either 
shooting  an  arrow,  or  stretching  forth 
his  hand,  as  if  to  aid  or  smite.  The 
winged  circle  by  itself  is  also  used  as 
his  emblem,  and  probably  denotes  his 
ubiquity  and  eternity,  as  the  human 
form  does  his  intelligence,  and  the 
horned  cap  his  power.  This  emblem, 
with  or  without  the  human  figure,  is 
an  almost  invariable  accompaniment 
of  Assyrian  royalty.  The  great  king 
wears  it  embroidered  upon  his  robes, 
carries  it  engraved  upon  his  seal  or 
cylinder,  represents  it  above  his  head 
in  the  rock-tablets  whereon  he  carves 
his  image,  stands  or  kneels  in  ador- 
ation before  it,  fights  under  its 
shadow,  under  its  protection  returns 
victorious,  places  it  conspicuously  up- 
on his  obelisks.  And  in  all  these 


*  "Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  i.  p.  17; 
vol.  iii.  pp.  86,  93,  95,  96;  vol.  v.  pp.  14,  15, 
etc. ;  vol.  ix.  pp.  5,  8,  9,  etc. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


representations,  it  is  remarkable  how 
he  makes  the  emblem  conform  to  the 
circumstances  in  which  he  is  himself 
engaged  at  the  time.  Where  he  is 
fighting,  Asshur,  too,  has  his  arrow 
upon  the  string,  and  points  it  against 
the  monarch's  adversaries.  When  he 
is  returning  home  victorious,  With  the 
disused  bow  in  his  left  hand,  and  his 
right  hand  outstretched  and  elevated, 
Asshur,  too,  has  the  same  attitude. 
In  peaceful  scenes  the  bow  disappears 
altogether.  If  the  king  worships,  the 
god  holds  out  his  hand  to  aid  ;  if  he 
is  engaged  in  secular  acts,  the  Divine 
presence  is  thought  to  be  sufficiently 
marked  by  the  circle  and  the  wings 
without  the  human  figure.* 

42.  In     immediate   succession     to 
Asshur  in  Assyria  and  II  in  Babylonia, 
we  find  in  both  countries  a  triad,  con- 
sisting of  Anu,  Bel,  and  Hea  or  Hoa. 
These  three  are  called,  par  excellence, 
•"  the  great  gods."  f     In  execrations 
they  are  separated  off  from   all   the 
other  deities,  and  placed  together  in 
a  clause  which  stands  at  the  head  of 
the   list    of  curses.     In    invocations 
their  names  follow,  for  the  most  part, 
immediately   after   the  name  of   As- 
shur;   and   this  is  their   usual    and 
proper  position  in   all  complete   lists 
of  the  chief  gods.  $     Anu  and  Bel   in 
the  Babylonian  system  are   brothers, 
both  being  sons  of  II  or  Ra  ;  but  this 
relationship  is  scarcely  acknowledged 
in  Assyria.     Hoa   in  both   countries 
stands   apart,  unconnected   with  the 
other  two,  and,  indeed,  unconnected 
with   any  of  the   other  gods,  except 
with  such  as  are  his  offspring. 

43.  It  has  been  conjectured  §  that 
in  this  triad  we  have  a  cosmogonic 
myth,  and  that  the  three  deities  rep- 
resent Anu,  the  primordial   chaos,  or 
matter  without  form  ;  Hoa,  life  and 
intelligence,  considered  as  moving  in 


*  See  the  Author's  "  Ancient  Monarchies," 
Yol.  ii.  pp.  234,  235. 

"  Records   of  the  Past,"  vol.  vii.  p.  121  ; 
vol.  ix.  pp.  100,  106,  etc. 

\  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.   Hi.  p.  83 ; 
vol.  v.  p.  29 ;  vol.  vii.  p.  7  ;  vol.  ix.  p.  23,  etc. 

§  See     Lenormant,    "  Manuel     d'Histoire 
Ancienne,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  182,  183. 


and  animating  matter ;  and  Bel,  the 
organizing  and  creating  spirit,  by 
which  matter  was  actually  brought 
into  subjection,  and  the  material  uni- 
verse arranged  in  an  orderly  way. 
But  it  may  be  questioned  whether  the 
veil  which  hides  the  esoteric  meaning 
of  the  Assyrian  religion  has  been  as 
yet  sufficiently  lifted  to  entitle  such 
conjectures  to  much  attention.  Our 
own  belief  is  that  Anu,  Bel,  and  Hoa 
were  originally  the  gods  of  the  earth, 
of  the  heaven,  and  of  the  waters,  thus 
corresponding  in  the  main  to  the 
classical  Pluto,  Zeus  or  Jupiter,  and 
Poseidon  or  Neptune,  who  divided 
between  them  the  dominion  over  the 
visible  creation.  But  such  notions 
became,  in  course  of  time,  overlaid  to 
a  great  extent  with  others ;  and 
though  Hoa  continued  always  more  or 
less  of  a  water  deity,  Anu  and  Bel 
ceased  to  have  peculiar  spheres,  and 
became  merely  "great  gods,"  with  a 
general  superintendence  over  the 
world,  and  with  no  very  marked  differ- 
ence of  powers. 

44.  Anu  is  commonly  spoken  of  as 
"the  old  Ann,"  "the  original  chief," 
"  the  king  of  the  lower  world,"  and 
"the  lord  of  spirits  and  demons." 
There  is  one  text  in  which  he  seems 
to  be  called  "  the  father  of  the  gods," 
but  the  reading  is  doubtful.  We 
cannot  identify  as  his  any  of  the  di- 
vine forms  on  the  Assyrian  or  Baby- 
lonian monuments,  nor  can  we  assign 
to  him  any  emblem,  excepting  that 
of  the  single  upright  wedge,  which 
represents  him  on  the  Chaldaean 
numeration  tablets.  This  single 
wedge  has  the  numerical  power  of 
sixty,  and  sixty  appears  to  have  been 
assigned  to  Anu  as  his  special  number. 
Though  a  "great  god,"  he  was  not 
one  toward  whom  much  preference 
was  shown.  His  name  is  scarcely 
ever  found  as  an  element  in  royal  or 
other  appellations ;  the  kings  do  not 
very  often  mention  him ;  and  only 
one  monarch  speaks  of  himself  as  his 
special  votary.* 


*  Tiglath  Pileser  I.  (See  "  Records  of  the 
Past,"  vol.  v.  p.  24.)  Yet  even  he  is  still 
more  devoted  to  Asshur. 


1G     104] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


45.  The  god  Bel,  familiarly  known 
to  us  both  from  Scripture  *  and  from 
the  Apocrypha,!  is   one  of  the  most 
marked   and   striking  figures   in  the 
pantheon  alike  of   Babylonia  and   of 
Assyria.     Bel  is  "  the   god  of  lords," 
"  the  father  of  the  gods,"  "  the   crea- 
tor," "the  mighty  prince,"  and   "the 
just  prince  of  the  gods."     He  plays  a 
leading  part   in   the  mythological  le- 
gends, which  form  so  curious  a  feat- 
ure   in  the  Babylonian  and  Assyrian 
religion.      In   the   "  History  of  Crea- 
tion "  we  are  told  that  Bel  made  the 
earth  and  the  heaven  ;  that  he  formed 
man  by  means   of  a  mixture  of  his 
own     blood    with     earth,    and    also 
formed  beasts  ;  and  that  afterward  he 
created   the  sun  and  the   moon,  the 
stars,  and  the  five   planets. $     In   the 
"  War  of  the  Gods,"  we  find  him  con- 
tending with  the  great   dragon,  Tia- 
mat,  and  after  a  terrible  single  com- 
bat    destroying    her  by  flinging    a 
thunderbolt   into  her   open   mouth. § 
He   also,  in   conjunction  with   Hoa, 
plans   the  defense   when  the    seven 
spirits  of  evil  rise  in  rebellion,  and 
the  dwelling-place    of    the   gods   is 
assaulted   by  them.||      The   titles   of 
Bel  generally  express  dominion.     He 
is  "the  lord," par  excellence,  which   is 
the  exact  meaning  of  his   name   in 
Assyrian  ;  he  is  "  the  king  of  all  the 
spirits,"  "  the  lord  of  the  world,"  and 
again,  "  the  lord  of  all  the  countries," 
Babylon   and   Nineveh   are,  both  of 
them,  under  his  special   care ;  Nine- 
veh having  the  title  of  "  the   city  of 
Bel,"  in  some  passages  of  the  inscrip- 
tions.    The  chief  seat  of  the  worship 
of  Bel  in  Babylonia  was  Nipur,  now 
Niffer,  and   in  Assyria,  Calah,   now 
Niinrud.     He  had   also   a  temple   at 
Duraba  (Akkerkuf). 

46.  Hea  or  Hoa,  the  third  god  of 
the  first  triad,  ranks  immediately  after 
Bel  in  the  complete  lists  of  Assyrian 
deities.      He  is  emphatically  one  of 


*  Isaiah  xlvi.  I  ;   Jer.  1.  2 ;  li.  44. 
t  See  the  history  of  "  Bel  and  the  Dragon." 
}  Berosus  ap.  Euseb.  <rChron.  Can."  i.  3. 
§  "Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  ix.  pp.  137- 

139- 

j|  Ibid.  vol.  v.  p.  164. 


the  "great  gods,"  and  is  called,  "the 
king,"  "  the  great  inventor,"  and  "  the 
determiner  of  destinies."  We  have 
already  remarked  that  he  was  specially 
connected  with  the  element  of  water  • 
and  hence  he  is  "  the  king  of  the  deep,'' 
"  the  king  of  rivers,"  "  the  lord  of  fount- 
ains," and,  to  a  certain  extent,  "  the 
lord  of  the  harvest."  In  the  legend 
of  creation  he  is  joined  with  Bel,  in 
the  office  of  guardian,  and  watches 
over  the  regularity  of  the  planetary 
courses.*  In  the  "War of  the  Gods/' 
he  and  Bel  plan  the  defense,  after 
which  Hea  commits  the  executions  of 
the  plans  made  to  his  son,  Marduk  or 
Merodach.t  In  the  flood  legend,  Hea 
naturally  plays  an  important  part.  It 
is  he  who  announces  to  Hasis-adra, 
the  Babylonian  Noah,  that  a  deluge  is 
about  to  destroy  mankind,  and  com- 
mands him  to  build  a  great  ship,  in 
order  that  he  may  escape  it.$  It  is 
he  again  who  opposes  the  wish  of  Bel 
to  make  the  destruction  complete,  and 
persuades  him  to  let  Hasis-adra  and 
his  family  come  out  safe  from  the  ark.§ 
In  the  tale  of  Ishtar's  descent  into 
Hades,  Hea's  counsel  is  sought  by  the 
moon-god  ;  and  by  a  skillful  device  he 
obtains  the  restoration  of  the  Queen 
of  Love  to  the  upper  world.  ||  Indeed, 
throughout  the  whole  of  the  mythology 
we  find  all  clever  inventions  and  well- 
laid  plans  ascribed  to  him,  so  that  his 
history  quite  justifies  his  title  of  "  lord 
of  deep  thoughts."  Hea  is  probably 
intended  by  the  Oe  of  Helladius,^! 
and  the  Cannes  of  Berosus,**  who 
came  up  out  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  in- 
structed the  first  settlers  on  the  Lower 
Tigris  and  Euphrates  in  letters,  science, 
religion,  law,  and  agriculture. 

47.  In  direct  succession  to  the  three 
gods  of  the  first  triad,  Anu,  Bel,  and 
Hea  or  Hoa,  we  find  a  second  still 
more  wide]y  recognized  triad,  com- 
prising the  moon-god,  the  sun-god,  and 
the  god  of  the  atmosphere.  There  is 


*  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  ix.  p.  118. 
t  Ibid.  vol.  v.  p.  165. 
\  Ibid.  vol.  vii.  pp.  135,  136. 
§  Ibid.  p.  142. 
||  Ibid.  vol.  i.  pp.  147-149. 
l"Ap.  Phot.  "  Bibliothec."  cclxxxix.  p.  1594. 
**  Berosus  ap.  Euseb.  "  Chron.  Can."  1.  s.  c. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  \VOKLD. 


IU5J     17 


great  difference  of  opinion  with  respect  j 
to  the  name  of  the  last  god  of  these 
three,  which  is  never  spelt  phonetically 
in  the  inscriptions,  but  only  repre- 
sented by  a  monogram.  He  has  been 
called  Iva  (or  Yav),  Vul,  Bin,  Yem 
(or  Im),  and  recently  Rimmon.* 
Without  presuming  to  decide  this 
vexed  question,  we  propose  to  adopt 
provisionally  the  rendering  "Vul,"  as 
the  one  likely  to  be  most  familiar  to 
our  readers,  from  its  employment  by 
Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  Mr.  George 
Smith,  and  Mr.  Fox  Talbot.  We  shall 
speak  therefore  of  the  second  triad  as 
one  consisting  of  Sin,  Shamas,  and  j 
Vul,  the  gods  respectively  of  the  moon, 
the  sun,  and  the  atmosphere. 

48.  It '  is  very  noticeable  that  in 
Assyria  and  Babylonia  the  moon-god 
took  precedence  of  the  sun-god. 
Night  probably  was  more  agreeable  to 
the  inhabitants  of  those  hot  regions 
than  day ;  and  the  cool,  placid  time 
when  they  could  freely  contemplate 
the  heavens,  and  make  their  stellar 
and  other  observations,  was  especially 
grateful  to  the  priestly  astronomers 
who  had  the  superintendence  and  ar- 
rangement of  the  religion.  Sin,  the 
moon,  is  thus  one  of  the  leading  deities. 
He  is  called,  "  the  chief  of  the  gods 
of  heaven  and  earth,"  "  the  king  of 
the  gods,"  and  even  "  the  god  of  the 
gods."  t  These  seem,  however,  to 
be  hyperbolical  expressions,  used  by 
his  votaries  in  the  warmth  of  their 
hears,  when  in  the  stage  of  religion 
which  Professor  Max  Miiller  has  desig- 
nated "  Henotheism."  $  Sin  more 
properly  was  "  the  brilliant,"  "  the 
illuminator,"  "  he  who  dwells  in  the 
sacred  heavens,"  "he  who  circles 
round  the  heavens,"  and  "  the  lord  of 
the  month."  Again,  for  some  recon- 
dite reason,  which  is  not  explained,  he 
was  selected  to  preside  over  architect- 
ure, and  in  this  connection  he  is  "  the 

*  "  Transactions  of  the  Society  of  Biblical 
Archaeology,"  vol.  v.  p.  441 ;  "  Records  of  the 
past,"  vol.  v.  p.  29;  vol.  vii.  pp.  165,  170; 
vol.  ix.  pp.  23,  27,  etc. 

t  In  the  Inscription  of  Nabonidus.  (See 
"Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  v.  pp.  146, 147.) 

J  "  Contemporary  Review,"  Nov.  1878,  pp. 
722. 


supporting  architect,"  "the  strength- 
ener  of  fortifications,"  and,  more  gen- 
erally, "  the  lord  of  building." 

49.  A  close  bond  of  sympathy  united 
Sin  with  the  two  other  members  of  the 
second  triad.     When  the  seven  spirits 
of  evil  made  war  in  heaven,  and  di- 
rected their  main  attack  upon  Sin,  as 
the  chief  leader  of  the  angelic  host, 
Shamas  and  Vul   instantly   came  to 
his  aid,   withstood   the   spirits,    and, 
fighting  firmly  side  by  side  with  him, 
succeeded  in  repulsing  them.*     The 
three  are  frequently  conjoined  in  in- 
vocations, execrations,  and  the  like.f 
In   offerings'  and   festivals,  however, 
Sin  is  united  with   Shamas  only,  the 
place  of  Vul  being  taken  by  a  goddess 
who  is  entitled  "  the  divine  mistress  of 
the  world."  t 

50.  Sin  was  among  the  gods  most 
widely  and  devoutly  worshiped,  both 
in  Babylonia  and  Assyria.     He  had 
temples   at    Ur,    Babylon,    Borsippa, 
Calah,  and  Dur-Sargina.     The  third 
month  of  the  year,  called  Sivan,  was 
dedicated  to  him.     In  a  month  not 
so  dedicated  we  find  sacrifice  to  the 
moon  prescribed  on  nine  days  out  of 
the  thirty.§     His    name   was  widely 
used  as  an  element  in  royal  and  other 
appellations,   as,  for  instance,  in  the 
well-known  name,  Sennacherib,  which 
in    the   original    is   Sin-akhi-irib,   or 
"  Sin  has  multiplied  brothers." 

51.  Shamas,  the  sun-god,  occupies 
the   middle   position   in    the   second 
triad,  which  is  either  "  Sin,  Shamas, 
Vul,"  or  "Vul,  Shamas,  Sin,"  though 
more    commonly   the    former.      His 
titles   are   either  general  or  special. 
In  a  general  way  he  is  called,   "  the 
establisher  of  heaven  and  earth,"  "  the 
judge   of    heaven   and   earth,"    "the 
warrior  of  the  world,"  and  "  the  regent 
of  all  things,"  while,  with  direct  refer- 


*See  "Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  v.  pp. 
164-166. 

t  Ibid.  vol.  i.  pp.  57,  93,  etc. ;  vol.  v.  pp. 
7,  122,  123  ;  vol.  ix.  pp.  23,  100,  etc. 

\  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  vii.  pp.  159, 
162,  etc. 

§  See  the  calendar  referred  to  in  the  _last 
note,  where  sacrifices  to  Sin  are  prescribed 
for  the  ist,  2d,  I3th,'  I4th,  iSth,  2oth,  2ist, 
22d,  and  29th  days  of  the  month. 


IS 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


ence  to  bis  physical  nature,  he  is  "  the 
lord  of  fire,"  "  the  light  of  the  gods," 
"the  ruler  of  the  day,"  and  "he  who 
illumines  the  expanse  of  heaven  and 
earth." 

52.  The  kings  regard  him  as  afford- 
ing them  especial  help  in  war.     He 
is  "  the  supreme  ruler,  who  casts  a 
favorable   eye   on   expeditions,"    the 
"  vanquisher  of  the  king's  enemies," 
"  the  breaker-up  of  opposition."     He 
"casts  his  motive  influence  "  over  the 
monarchs,  and  causes  them   to  "  as- 
semble their  chariots  and  their  war- 
riors,"  he   "  goes    forth    with    their 
armies,"  and  enables  them  to  extend 
their  dominions  ;  he  chases  their  ene- 
mies before  them,  causes  opposition 
to  cease,  and  brings  them  back  with 
victory  to  their  own  country. 

53.  Besides  this,  in  time  of  peace, 
he  helps  them  to  sway  the  scepter  of 
power,  and  to  rule  over  their  subjects 
with  authority.     It  seems  that,  from 
observing  the  manifest  agency  of  the 
material   sun   in    stimulating   all  the 
functions  of  nature,  the  Assyrians  and 
Babylonians  came  to   the  conclusion 
that  the  sun-god  exerted  a  similar  in- 
fluence over  the  minds  of  men,  and 
was  the  great  motive  agent  in  human 
history.* 

54.  The  worship  of   Sham  as   wr.s 
universal.     The  seventh  month,  Tisri, 
was   dedicated   to    him,    and  in   the 
second  Elul,  he  had,  like  the  moon- 
god,  nine  festivals.     His  emblem  ap- 
pears upon  almost   all  the    religious 
cylinders,  and  in  almost  all  lists  of 
the  gods  his  name  holds  a  high  place. 
Sometimes  he  is  a  member  of  a  lead- 
ing triad,   composed  of   himself  to- 
gether with  Sin  and  Asshur.  t     In  the 
mythological  legends  he  is  not  very 
frequently  mentioned.     We  find  him, 
however,  defending  the  moon-god,  in 
conjunction  with  Vul,  when  the  seven 
spirits     make     their     assault     upon 
heaven  ;  $  and  in  the  deluge  tablets 


*"  Ancient  Monarchies,"  vol.  i.  p.  160= 
t  This  is  the  position  which  he  holds  regu- 
larly in  the  Inscriptions  of  Asshurbanipal, 
the  son  of  Esarhaddon.    .(See  "  Records  of 
the  Past,"  vol.  i.  pp.  58,  71,  77,  93-5,  99,  100, 
103,  etc.). 
t  See  above,  p.  16. 


we  are  told  that  it  was  he  who  actual- 
ly made  the  Flood.*  But  otherwise 
the  mythology  is  silent  about  him, 
offering  in  this  respect  a  remarkable 
contrast  to  the  Egyptian,  where  the 
sun  is  the  principal  figure. 

55.  Vul,  the  god  of  the  atmosphere, 
who  completes  the  second  triad,  has, 
on  the  whole,  a  position  quite  equal 
to  that  of  Sin  and  Shamas,  whom  he 
occasionally  even  precedes  in  the 
ists.f  Some  kings  seem  to  place 
aim  on  a  par  with  Anu,  or  with 
Asshur,  recognizing  Anu  and  Vul,  or 
Asshur  and  Vul,  as  especially  "  the 
great  gods,"  and  as  their  own  pecul- 
iar guardians.  $  In  a  general  way 
be  corresponds  with  the  "  Jupiter 
Tonans  "  of  the  Romans,  being  the 
"  prince  of  the  power  of  the  air,"  Ihe 
lord  of  the  whirlwind  and  the  tem- 
pest, and  the  wielder  of  the  thun- 
derbolt. His  most  common  titles 
are  "  the  minister  of  heaven  and 
earth,"  "  the  lord  of  the  air,"  and 
"he  who  makes  the  tempest  to 

ige."  He  is  regarded  as  the  de- 
stroyer of  crops,  the  rooter-up  of  trees, 
the  scatterer  of  the  harvest ;  famine, 
scarcity,  and  even  their  consequence, 
pestilence,  are  assigned  to  him.  He 
is'said  to  have  in  his  hand  a  "  flaming 
sword,"  with  which  he  effects  his  rav- 
ages; and  this  "flaming  sword," 
which  probably  represents  lightning, 
seems  to  form  his  emblem  on  the  tab- 
lets and  cylinders,  where  it  is  figured 
as  a  double  or  triple  bolt.  But  Vul 
has  also  a  softer  character;  as  the 
god  of  the  atmosphere  he  gives  the 
rain  ;  and  hence  he  is  "  the  careful 
and  beneficent  chief,"  "the  giver 
of  abundance,"  and  "the  lord  of 
fecundity."  In  this  capacity,  he  is 
naturally  chosen  to  preside  over  ca- 
nals, the  great  fertilizers  in  Mesopo- 
tamia ;  and  thus  we  find  among  his 
titles,  "  the  lord  of  canals,"  and  "  the 
establisher  of  works  of  irrigation."  § 
56.  To  the  eight  "great  gods," 


*"  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  vii.  p.  138. 
t  Ibid.  vol.  ix.  p.  100. 
t  Ibid.  vol.  iii.  p.  46 ;  vol.  v.  pp.  24-26. 
§ "  Ancient  Monarchies,"  voL   i.  pp.   164, 
165. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


whose  functions  have  been  here  de- 
scribed, may  be  added  most  conven- 
iently in  this  place,  six  goddesses.  It 
was  a  general,  though  not  a  universal 
rule,  in  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian 
mythology,  that  each  god  should 
have  a  wife.  From  this  law  the  heads 
of  the  respective  pantheons,  II  and 
Asshur,  were  exempt;*  but  otherwise 
almost  all  the  principal  deities  are 
united  in  pairs,  one  of  whom  is  male 
and  the  other  female.  Anu  has  a  wife, 
Anata  or  Anat,  who  is  a  pale  and 
shadowy  personage,  the  mere  faint  re- 
flex of  her  husband  whose  name  she 
receives,  merely  modified  by  a  femi- 
nine inflection.  Bil  or  Bel  has  a  wife, 
Bilat,  known  to  the  classical  writers 
as  Beltis  or  Mylitta,f  a  term  stand- 
ing to  Bil  as  Anat  to  Anu,  but  desig- 
nating a  far  more  substantial  being. 
Beltis  is  "  the  mother  of  the  gods," 
"  the  great  goddess,"  "  the  great 
lady,"  *'  the  queen  of  the  lands,"  and 
"  the  queen  of  fecundity."  She  cor- 
responds to  the  Cybele  of  the  Phry- 
gians, the  Rhea  of  the  Greeks,  and 
the  "  Magna  Mater  "  or  "  Bona  Dea  " 
of  the  Romans.  Occasionally,  she 
adds  to  this  character  the  attributes  of 
Bellona  and  even  Diana,  being  spoken 
of  as  presiding  over  war  and  hunting. 
The  wife  of  Hoa  has  been  called 
Dav-kina  ;  but  the  first  element  of  the 
name  seems  now  to  be  read  more 
generally  as  Nin,  while  the  second 
is  rendered  by  azu.%.  Ninazu  is  said 
to  have  been  "queen  of  Hades  "  and 
"  the  lady  of  the  house  of  Death."§ 
Her  special  office  was  to  watch  and 
soothe  the  last  hours  of  the  dying.  || 


*In  one  place  I  observe  a  mention  of 
a  "goddess  Assuritu  "  ("  Records,"  vol.  i.  p. 
60),  who  might  seem  to  be  a  feminine  form 
of  Asshur.  But  the  original  reads,  "  Asshur 
va  Ishtar  Assuritu,"  which  shows  Aseuritu 
to  be  a  mere  title  of  Ishtar.  (See  G.  Smith's 
"  Annals  of  Asshurbanipal,"  p.  17.) 

t  Herod,  i.  131,  199;  Hesychius  ad.  voc. 


\  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  ix.  pp.  131, 
132.  Professor  Sayce  reads  the  name  as 
Ninkigal  (Ibid.  p.  146). 

§  See  Professor  Sayce's  note  on  the  pas- 
sage last  quoted. 

J  4  Records,"  vol.  v.  p.  146.    Compare  vol. 
iii.  p.  141. 


To  the  wife  of  Sin  no  proper  name  is 
given ;  but  she  is  frequently  asso- 
ciated with  her  husband  under  the  ap- 
pellation of  "  the  great  lady."  The 
wife  of  Shamas  is  Gula  or  Anunit,  who 
was,  Ifke  Beltis,  a  "great  goddess," 
but  had  a  less  distinctive  character, 
being  little  more  than  a  female  Sun. 
Finally,  Vul  had  a  wife  called  Shala 
or  Tula,  whose  common  title  is  sarrat, 
"  Queen,"  but  who  is  a  colorless  and 
insignificant  personage. 

57.  On  the  second  of  the  two  great 
triads  which  hold  so  high  a  place  in 
the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  panthe- 
ons, there  follows  a  group  of  five  gods, 
with  an  unmistakably  astral  charac- 
ter. These  are  Nin  or  Bar,  Merodach 
or  Marduk,  Nergal,  Ishtar,  and  Nebo, 
who  correspond  respectively  to  the 
planets,  Saturn,  Jupiter,  Mars,  Venus, 
and  Mercury.  Nin,  or  Bar,  who  pre- 
sided over  the  most  distant  of  the  vis- 
ible planets,  Saturn,  was  more  an 
object  of  worship  in  Assyria  than  in 
Babylonia.  He  has  been  called  "  the 
Assyrian  Hercules,"*  and  in  many 
respects  resembles  that  hero  of  the 
classical  nations.  Among  his  titles 
are  found,  "the  lord  of  the  brave," 
"  the  warlike,"  "  the  champion,"  "  the 
warrior  who  subdues  foes,"  "  the  re- 
ducer of  the  disobedient,"  "  the  exter- 
minator of  rebels,"  "the  powerful 
I  lord,"  "  the  exceeding  strong  god," 
and  "  he  whose  sword  is  good."  He 
presides  in  a  great  measure  both  over 
war  and  hunting.  Most  of  the  Assyr- 
ian monarchs  represent  themselves 
as  going  out  to  war  under-  his  aus- 
pices, and  ascribe  their  successes 
mainly  to  his  interposition.  He  is 
especially  useful  to  them  in  the  sub- 
jection of  rebels.  He  also  on  some 
occasions  incites  them  to  engage  in 
the  chase,  and  aids  them  strenuously 
in  their  encounters  with  wild  bulls  and 
lions.f  It  is  thought  that  he  was  em- 
blematically portrayed  in  the  winged 
and  human-headed  bull,  which  forms 


*  Layard,  "Nineveh  and  Babylon,"  p.  214; 
"  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  v.  pp.  7,  21,  23, 
etc. 

t  See  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  v.  p.  21. 


L>0     [98] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


so  striking  a  feature  in  the  architect- 
ural erections  of  the  Assyrians. 

58.  As  Nin  was  a  favorite  Assyrian 
so  Merodach  was  a  favorite  Babylo- 
nian god.  From  the  earliest  times  the 
Babylonian  monarchs  placed  him  in 
the  highest  rank  of  deities,  worship- 
ing him  in  conjunction  with  Anu, 
Bel,  and  Hea,  the  three  gods  of  the 
first  triad.*  The  great  temple  of 
Babylon,  known  to  the  Greeks  as  the 
Temple  of  Bel,t  was  certainly  dedi- 
cated to  him ;  and  it  would  therefore 
seem  that  the  later  Babylonians,  at 
any  rate,  must  have  habitually  applied 
to  him  the  name  of  Bel,  or  "  lord,'' 
which  in  earlier  times  had  designated 
a  different  member  of  their  pantheon. 
Merodach's  ordinary  titles  are,  "  the 
great,"  "the  great  lord,"  "the 
prince,"  "  the  prince  of  the  gods," 
and  "  the  august  god."  He  is  also 
called,  "  the  judge,"  "  the  most  an- 
cient," "he  who  judges  the  gods," 
"the  eldest  son  of  heaven,"  and  in 
one  place,  "the  lord  of  battles."! 
Occasionally,  he  has  still  higher  and 
seemingly  exclusive  designations,  such 
as,  "the  great  lord  of  eternity,"  "the 
king  of  heaven  and  earth,"  "  the  lord 
of  all  beings,"  "  the  chief  of  the  gods," 
and  "  the  god  of  gods."^  But  these 
titles  seem  not  to  be  meant  exclu- 
sively. He  is  held  in  considerable 
honor  among  the  Assyrians,  being 
often  coupled  with  Asshur,||  or  with 
Asshur  and  Nebo,H  as  a  war-god,  one 
by  whom  the  kings  gain  victories,  and 
obtain  the  destruction  of  their  ene- 
mies. But  it  is  in  Babylonia,  and  es- 
pecially in  the  later  Babylonian  Em- 
pire under  Nebuchadnezzar  and  Ne- 
riglissar,  that  his  worship  culminates. 
It  is  then  that  all  the  epithets  of  high- 
est honor  are  accumulated  upon  him, 


*  See  the  Inscription  of  Agu-kak-rimi,  pub- 
lished in  the  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  vii. 
p.  3,  lines  5  and  6. 

t  Herod,  i.  181-183;  Strab.  xvi.  p.  1049; 
Arrian,  "  Exp.  Alex."  vii.  17. 

J  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  v.  p.  29. 

§Ibid.  vol.  v.  pp.  112,  119,  122  ;  vol.  ix.  pp. 
96,  1 06. 

||  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  20 ;  vol.  iii.  pp.  53,  55 ;  vol. 
v.  p.  41 ;  vol.  x.  p.  53,  etc. 

*{Ibtd.  vol.  vii.  pp.  25,  27,  45,  etc. 


and  that  he  becomes  an  almost  ex- 
clusive object  of  worship ;  it  is  then 
that  we  find  such  expressions  as  :  "I 
supplicated  the  king  of  gods,  the  lord 
of  lords,  in  Borsippa,  the  city  of  his 
loftiness,"*  and  "O  god  Merodach, 
great  lord,  lord  of  the  house  of  the 
gods,  light  of  the  gods,  father,  even 
for  thy  high  honor,  which  changeth 
not,  a  temple  have  I  built."t 

59.  In  his  stellar  character,  Mero- 
dach represented  the  planet  Jupiter, 
with  which  he  was  supposed  to  have 
a   very     intimate    connection.      The 
eighth  month  (Marchesvan)  was  ded- 
icated to  him.$     In  the  second  Elul 
he  had  three   festivals — on  the  third, 
on  the  seventh,  and  on  the  sixteenth 
day.§ 

60.  Nergal,  who  presided  over  the 
planet  Mars,  was   essentially  a  war- 
god.     His  name  signifies  "  the  great 
man,"  or  the  "great hero;  "||  and  his 
commonest   titles   are    "  the   mighty 
hero,"  "  the  king  of  battle,"  "  the  de- 
stroyer," "  the  champion  of  the  gods," 
and  "  the  great  brother."     He  "  goes 
before  "  the  kings  in  their  warlike  ex- 
peditions,  and  helps   them    to   con- 
found  and    destroy    their    enemies. 
Nor   is   he  above   lending   them  his 
assistance  when  they  indulge  in  the 
pleasures  of  the  chase.     One  of  his 
titles  is  "  the  god  of  hunting,"  *![  and 
while  originally  subordinated  to  Nin 
in  this  relation,  ultimately  he  outstrips 
his  rival,  and   becomes   the  especial 
patron   of   hunters    and    sportsmen. 
Asshur-bani-pal,  who  is  conspicuous 
among  the  Assyrian  kings  for  his  in- 
tense  love  of  field  sports,  uniformly 
ascribes  his  successes  to  Nergal,  and 
does  not  even  join  with  him  any  other 
deity.     Nergal's  emblem  was  the  hu- 
man-headed  and   winged  lion,  which 
is  usually  seen,  as  it  were  on  guard, 
at  the  entrance  of  the  royal  palaces. 


*  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  v.  p.  120. 

t  Ibid.  p.  142. 

J  Ibid.  vol.  vii.  p.  169. 

§  Ibid.  pp.  159,  1 60  and  i 

||  Sir  Rawlmson  in  the  Author's  "  Herodo- 
tus," vol.  i.  p.  655. 

T  Sir  H.  Rawlinson  in  the  Author's  "  He- 
rodotus," 1.  s.  c. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


61.  Ishtar,  who  was  called  Nanaby 
the  Babylonians,*  corresponded  both 
in  name  and  attributes  with  the  As- 
tarte'  of  the  Phoenicians  and  Syrians. 
Like  the  Greek  Aphrodite*  and  the 
Latin  Venus,  she  was  the  Queen  of 
Love  and  Beauty,  the  goddess  who 
presided  over  the  loves  both  of  men 
and  animals,  and  whose  own  -amours 
were  notorious.  In  one  of  the  Izdu- 
bar  legends,  she  courts  that  romantic 
individual,  who,  however,  declines  her 
advances,  reminding  her  that  her 
favor  had  always  proved  fatal  to  those 
persons  on  whom  she  had  previously 
bestowed  her  affections.f  There  can 
be  little  doubt  that  in  Babylon,  at  any 
rate,  she  was  worshiped  with  unchaste 
rites, $  and  that  her  cult  was  thus 
of  a  corrupting  and  debasing  charac- 
ter. But  besides  and  beyond  this  soft 
and  sensual  aspect,  Ishtar  had  a  fur- 
ther and  nobler  one.  She  corre- 
sponded, not  to  Venus  only,  but  also 
to  Bellona ;  being  called  "  the  god- 
dess of  war  and  battle,"  "  the  queen 
of  victory,"  "  she  who  arranges  bat- 
tles," and  "  she  who  defends  from  at- 
tack." The  Assyrian  kings  very  gen- 
erally unite  her  with  Asshur,  in  the 
accounts  which  they  give  of  their  ex- 
peditions ;  §  speaking  of  their  forces 
as  those  which  Asshur  and  Ishtar  had 
committed  to  their  charge ;  of  their 
battles  as  fought  in  the  service  of 
Asshur  and  Ishtar,  and  of  their  tri- 
umphs as  the  result  of  Asshur  and 
Ishtar  exalting  them  above  their  ene- 
mies. Ishtar  had  also  some  general 
titles  of  a  lofty  but  vague  character ; 
she  was  called,  "the  fortunate,"  "the 
happy,"  "the  great  goddess,"  "the 
mistress  of  heaven  and  earth,"  and 
"  the  queen  of  all  the  gods  and  god- 
desses." In  her  stellar  aspect,  she 
presided  ox'er  the  planet  Venus ;  and 


*  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  iii.  pp.  7, 10, 
n,  13,  14,  etc. ;  vol.  v.  pp.  72,  83, 102,  etc. 

"  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  ix.  pp.  125- 
128. 

J  See  Herod,  i.  199 ;  of  Baruch,  vi.  43,  and 
Strabo,  xvi.  p.  1058. 

§  "  Records  of  the  Past."  vol.  i.  pp.  69-86  ; 
vol.  iii.  p.  45,  etc. 


the  sixth  month,  Elul,  was  dedicated 
to  her* 

62.  Nebo,  the  last  of  the  five  plane- 
tary deities,  presided  over  Mercury. 
It  was  his  special  function  to  have 
under  his  charge  learning  and  knowl- 
edge. He  is  called  "  the  god  who 
possesses  intelligence,"!  "  he  who 
hears  from  afar,"  "  he  who  teaches," 
and  "  he  who  teaches  and  instructs,"^ 
The  tablets  of  the  royal  library  at 
Nineveh  are  said  to  contain  "  the  wis- 
dom of  Nebo."§  He  is  also  like 
Mercury,  "  the  minister  of  the  gods," 
though  scarcely  their  messenger,  an 
office  which  belongs  to  Paku.  At  the 
same  time,  as  has  often  been  re- 
marked, ||  Nebo  has,  like  many  olher 
of  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian 
gods,  a  number  of  general  titles,  im- 
plying divine  power,  which,  if  they 
had  belonged  to  him  alone,  would 
have  seemed  to  prove  him  the  supreme 
deity.  He  is  "  the  lord  of  lords,  who 
has  no  equal  in  power,"  "  the  supreme 
chief,"  "the  sustainer,"  "the  sup- 
porter," "  the  ever  ready,"  "  the.  guard- 
ian of  heaven  and  earth,"  "  the  lord 
of  the  constellations,"  "  the  holder  of 
the  scepter  of  power,"  "he  who  grants 
to  kings  the  scepter  of  royalty  for  the 
governance  of  their  people."  It  is 
chiefly  by  his  omission  from  many 
lists,  and  by  his  humble  place,1T  when 
he  is  mentioned  together  with  the 
really  "  great  gods,"  that  we  are  as- 
sured of  his  occupying  a  (compara- 
tively speaking)  low  position  in  the 
general  pantheon.  The  planetary 
gods  had  in  most  instances  a  female 
complement.  Nebo  was  closely  asso- 
ciated with  a  goddess  called  Urmit  or 
Tasmit,  Nergai  with  one  called  Laz, 
and  Merodach  with  Zirpanit  or  Zir- 


*  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  vii.  p.  169. 

t  Ibid.  vol.  v.  pp.  113,  122,  etc. 

\  "  Ancient  Monarchies,"  vol.  i.  p.  177. 

§  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  i.  p.  58. 

||  Sir  H.  Rawlinson  in  the  Authors  "  He- 
rodotus," vol.  i.  p.  661 ;  "  Ancient  Monarch- 
ies," 1.  s.  c. 

If  Nebo's  place  varies  commonly  from  the 

fifth  to  the  thirteenth,  and  is  generally  about 

the  seventh.     Nebuchadnezzar,  however,  puts 

him  third.     ("  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  v.  p. 

i  122.) 


[i03j 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


banit.  Nin,  the  son  of  Bel  and  Beltis, 
is  sometimes  made  the  husband  of  his 
mother,*  but  otherwise  has  no  fe- 
male counterpart.  Ishtar  is  some- 
times coupled  with  Nebo  in  a  way 
that  might  suggest  her  being  his  \vife,t 
if  it  were  not  that  that  position  is  cer- 
tainly occupied  by  Urmit. 

63.  Among    other     Assyrian     and 
Babylonian  deities  may  be  mentioned 
Nusku,  a  god  assigned  a  high  rank  by 
Asshur-bani-pal  ;$  Makhir,    the    gocl- 
dess  of   dreams,§    Paku,    the   divine 
messenger, ||    Laguda,  the  god    of    a 
town  call  Kisikjf  Zamal,  Turda,  Ish- 
kara,     Malik,     deities      invoked     in 
curses  ;**  Zicum,  a  primeval  goddess, 
said  to  be  "  the  mother  of  Ann  ;  and 
the  gocls,''tt    Dakan,$$    perhaps  Da- 
gon,  Martu,  Zira,  Idak,  Kurrikh,  etc. 
Many   other   strange   names  also  oc- 
cur,   but   either  rarely,    or   in  a  con- 
nection which  is  thought  to  indicate 
that    they   are    local    appellations    of 
some  of  th«  well-known  deities.     No 
more  need  be   said  of  these  person- 
ages, since  the  general  character  of 
the   religion   is  but  little  affected   by 
the  oelief  in  gods  who  played  so  very 
insignificant  a  part  in  the  system. 

64.  The  Assyrians  and  Babylonians 
worshiped    their  gods    in    shrines    or 
chapels  of  no  very  great  size,  to  which, 
however,    was   frequently   attached   a 
lofty  tower,  built  in  stages,  which  were 
sometimes  as  many  as  seven. §§     The 
tower  could  be  ascended  by  steps  on 
the  outside,  and  was  usually  crowned 
by   a   small  chapel.     The  gods  were 
represented  by  images,    which    were 
either  of  stone  or  metal,   and  which 
bore  the   human    form,  excepting  in 
two  instances.     Nin  and  Nergal  were 
portrayed,  as  the  Jews,  perhaps,  por- 

*  Ancient  Monarchies,"  vol.  i.  p.  169. 

^  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  176. 

J  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  i.  pp.  57,  58. 

7J»  77,  94,  95.  etc-  5  vo1-  ix-  PP-  45.  61,  etc. 

§  Ibid.  vol.  ix.  p.  152. 

||  Ibid.  vol.  v.  p.  165. 

IF  Ibid.  vol.  ix.  pp.  3  and  15. 
;*  Ibid.  p.  101. 

ft  Ibid.  p.  146,  and  note. 

\\  Ibid.  vol.  lii.  p.  40;  voj.  v.  p.  117  ;  vol 
vii.  pp.  n,  27,  etc. 

§§  As  at  Borsippa  (Birs-i-Nimrod),  where  a 
portion  of  each  stage  remains. 


trayed  their  cherubim,  by  animal  forms 
of  great  size  and  grandeur,  having 
luman  heads  and  huge  outstretched 
wings.*  There  was  nothing  hideous 
or  even  grotesque  about  the  represen- 
ations  of  the  Assyrian  gods.  The 
object  aimed  at  was  to  fill  ihe  specta- 
or  with  feelings  of  awe  and  rever- 
ence ;  and  the  figures  have,  in  fact, 
universally,  an  appearance  of  calm 
placid  strength  and  majesty,  which  is 
most  solemn  and  impressive. 

65.  The  gods  were  worshiped,  as 
generally  in  the  ancient  world,  by 
prayer,  praise,  and  sacrifice.  Prayer 
was  offered  both  for  oneself  and  for 
others.  The  "  sinfulness  of  sin  "  was 
deeply  felt,  and  the  Divine  anger  dep- 
recated with  much  earnestness.  "  O! 
my  Lord,'?  says  one  suppliant,  "my 
sins  are  many,  my  trespasses  are  great; 
and  the  wrath  of  the  gods  has  plagued 
me  with  disease,  and  sickness,  and 
sorrow.  I  fainted,  but  no  one 
stretched  forth  his  hand  ;  I  groaned, 
but  no  one  drew  nigh.  I  cried  aloud, 
but  no  one  heard.  O  Lord,  do  not 
Thou  abandon  thy  servant.  In  the 
waters  of  the  great  storm,  do  Thou 
lay  hold  of  his  hand.  The  sins  which 
he  has  committed,  do  Thou  turn  to 
righteousness. "t  Special  interces- 
sion was  made  for  the  Assyrian  kings. 
The  gods  were  besought  to  grant 
them  "  length  of  days,  a  strong  sword, 
extended  years  of  glory,  pre-eminence 
among  monarchs,  and  an  enlarge- 
ment of  the  bounds  of  their  empire." \ 
It  is  thought  that  their  happiness  in 
a  future  state  was  also  prayed  for.§ 
Praise  was  even  more  frequent  than 
prayer.  The  gods  were  addressed 
under  their  various  titles,  and  their 
benefits  to  mankind  commemorated. 
"O  Fire!"  we  read  on  one  tablet, U 
"  Great  Lord,  who  art  exalted  above 
all  the  earth !  O !  noble  son  of 
heaven,  exalted  above  all  the  earth, 

*  tfzek.  x.  8-22. 

t  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  iii.  p.  136. 

I  Ibid.  p.  133. 

§  Fox  Talbot  in  the  "Transactions  of  the 
Society  of  Biblical  Archaeology,"  vol.  i.  p. 
107. 

H  "Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  iii.  pp.  137, 
138- 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[I01J   23 


O  Fire,  with  thy  bright  flame,  thou 
dost  produce  light  in  the  dark  house ! 
Of  all  things  that  can  be  named,  thou 
dost  create  the  fabric;  of  bronze  and 
of  lead,  thou  art  the  melter ;  of  silver 
and  of  gold,  thou  art  the  refiner  ;  of 
.  .  .  thou  art  the  purifier.  Of  the 
wicked  man,  in  the  night-time,  thou 
dost  repel  the  assault ;  but  the  man 
who  serves  his  God,  thou  wilt  give 
him  light  for  his  actions."  Sacrifice 
almost  always  accompanied  prayer 
and  praise.  Every  day  in  the  year 
seems  to  have  been  sacred  to  some 
deity  or  deities,  and  some  sacrifice  or 
other  was  offered  every  day  by  the 
monarch,*  who  thus  set  an  example  to 
his  subjects,  which  we  may  be  sure 
they  were  not  slow  to  follow.  The 
principal  sacrificial  animals  were  bulls, 
oxen,  sheep,  and  gazelles.f  Libations 
of  wine  were  also  a  part  of  the  recog- 
nized worship, |  and  offerings  might 
be  made  of  anything  valuable. 

66.  It  is  an  interesting  question 
how  far  the  Assyrians  and  Babylo- 
nians entertained  any  confident  expec- 
tation of  a  future  life,  arid,  if  so,  what 
view  they  took  of  if.  That  the  idea 
did  not  occupy  a  prominent  place  in 
their  minds ;  that  there  was  a  con- 
trast in  this  respect  between  them  and 
the  people  of  Egypt,  is  palpable  from 
the  very  small  number  of  passages  in 
which  anything  like  an  allusion  to  a 
future  state  of  existence  has  been 
delected.  Still,  there  certainly  seem 
to  be  places  in  which  the  continued 
existence  of  the  dead  is  spoken  of, 
and  where  the  happiness  of  the  good 
and  the  wretchedness  of  the  wicked 
in  the  future  state  are  indicated.  It 
has  been  already  noticed,  that  in  one 
passage  the  happiness  of  the  king  in 
another  world  seems  to  be  prayed  for. 
In  two  or  three  others,  prayer  is 
offered  for  a  departing  soul  in  terms 
like  the  following :  "  May  the  sun 


*  See  the  fragment  of  a  Calendar  pub- 
lished in  the  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  vii. 
pp.  159-168. 

t  Ibid,  pp.  137,  159,  and  161  ;  "Ancient 
Monarchies,"  vol.  ii.  p.  271. 

|  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  iii.  p.  124; 
vol.  vii.  p.  140. 


give  him  life,  and  Merodach  grant 
him  an  abode  of  happiness,"*  or,  "  To 
the  sun,  the  greatest  of  the  gods,  may 
he  ascend ;  and  may  the  sun,  the 
greatest  of  the  gods,  receive  his  soul 
into  his  holy  hands."f  The  nature  of 
the  happiness  enjoyed  may  be  gathered 
from  occasional  notices,  where  the 
soul  is  represented  as  clad  in  a  white 
radiant  garment,*  as  dwelling  in  the 
presence  of  the  gods,  and  as  partak- 
ing of  celestial  food  in  the  abode  of 
blessedness.  On  the  other  hand, 
Hades,  the  receptacle  of  the  wicked 
after  death,  is  spoken  of  as  "the 
abode  of  darkness  and  famine,"  the 
place  '*  where  earth  is  men's  food,  and 
their  nourishment  clay;  where  light 
is  not  seen,  but  in  darkness  they 
dwell;  where  ghosts,  like  birds,  flutter 
their  wings,  and  on  the  door  and  the 
doorposts  the  dust  lies  undisturbed."! 
Different  degrees  of  sinfulness  seem 
to  meet  with  different  and  appropriate 
punishments.  There  is  one  place — 
apparently,-  a  penal  fire — reserved  for 
unfaithful  wives  and  husbands,  and 
for  youths  who  have  dishonored  their 
bodies.  Thus  it  would  appear  that 
M.  Lenormant  was  mistaken  when  he 
said,  that,  though  the  Assyrians  rec- 
ognized a  place  of  departed  spirits, 
yet  it  v/as  one  "  in  which  there  was  no 
trace  of  a  distinction  of  rewards  and 
punishments."  || 

67.  The  superstitions  of  the  Assyr- 
ians and  Babylonians  were  numerous 
and  strange.  They  believed  in  charms 
of  various  kinds  ;  IT  in  omens,**  in  as- 
trology, in  spells,  and  in  a  miraculous 
power  inherent  in  an  object  which 
they  called  "  the  Mamit."  What  the 


*  "  Transactions  of  the  Society  of  Biblical 
Archreology,"  vol.  ii.  p.  32. 

t  Ibid.  p.  31. 

\  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  iii.  p.  135. 

§  "Transactions,"  etc.,  vol.  i.  p.  113. 

||  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  i.  p.  143. 

"If  Ibid.  vol.  iii.  p.  142. 

**  Among  the  remains  of  Assyrian  and 
Babylonian  literature  are  tables  of  omens  de- 
rived from  dreams,  from  births,  from  an  in- 
spection of  the  hand,  or  of  the  entrails  of  an- 
imals, and  from  the  objects  a  traveler  meets 
with  on  his  journey.  Dogs  alone  furnish 
eighteen  omens  (Ibid.>  vol.  v.  pp.  160-170). 


24     [102 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


Mamit  was  is  quite  uncertain.*  Ac- 
cording to  the  native  belief,  it  had 
descended  from  heaven,  and  was  a 
"  treasure,"  a  "  priceless  jewel,"  in- 
finitely more  valuable  than  anything 
else  upon  the  earth.  It  was  ordina- 
rily kept  in  a  temple,  but  was  some- 
times brought  to  the  bedside  of  a  sick 
person,  with  the  object  of  driving  out 
the  evil  spirits  to  whom  his  disease 
was  owing,  and  of  so  recovering  him. 
68.  Among  the  sacred  legends  of  the 
Babylonians  and  Assyrians  the  follow- 
ing were  the  most  remarkable.  They 
believed  that  at  a  remote  date,  before 
the  creation  of  the  world,  there  had 
been  war  in  heaven.  Seven  spirits, 
created  by  Anu  to  be  his  messengers, 
took  counsel  together  and  resolved  to 
revolt.  "  Against  high  heaven,  the 
dwelling-place  of  Anu  the  king,  they 
plotted  evil,"  and  unexpectedly  made 
a  fierce  attack.  The  moon,  the  sun, 
and  Vul,  the  god  of  the  atmosphere, 
withstood  them,  and  after  a  fearful 
struggle  beat  them  off.f  .There  was 
then  peace  for  awhile.  But  once 
more,  at  a  later  date,  a  fresh  revolt 
broke  out.  The  hosts  of  heaven  were 
assembled  together,  in  number  five 
thousand,  and  were  engaged  in  sing- 
ing a  psalm  of  praise  to  Anu,  when 
suddenly  discord  arose.  "  With  a 
loud  cry  of  contempt "  a  portion  of 
the  angelic  choir  "  broke  up  the  holy 
song,"  uttering  wicked  blasphemies, 
and  so  "  spoiling,  confusing,  confound- 
ing the  hymn  of  praise."  Asshur  was 
asked  to  put  himself  at  their  head, 
but  "  refused  to  go  forth  with  them."! 
Their  leader,  who  is  unnamed,  took 
the  form  of  a  dragon,  and  in  that 
shape  contended  with  the  god  Bel, 
who  proved  victorious  in  the  combat, 
and  slew  his  adversary  by  means  of  a 
thunderbolt,  which  he  flung  into  the 
creature's  open  mouth. §  Upon  this, 
the  entire  host  of  the  wicked  angels 
took  to  flight,  and  was  driven  to  the 


*  See  a  paper  by  Mr.  Fox  Talbot  in  the 
"  Transactions  of  the  Society  of  Biblical 
Archaeology,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  35-42. 

t  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  v.  pp.  163-166. 

t  Ibid.  vol.  vii.  pp.  127,  128. 

§  Ibid.  vol.  ix.  pp.  137-139. 


abode  of  the  seven  spirits  of  evil, 
where  they  were  forced  to  remain, 
their  return  to  heaven  being  prohib- 
ited. In  their  room  man  was  created.* 

69.  The  Chaldasan  legend  of  crea- 
tion, according  to  Berosus,  was  as 
follows : — 

"  In  the  beginning  all  was  darkness 
and  water,  and  therein  were  generated 
monstrous  animals  of  strange  and  pe- 
culiar forms.  There  were  men  with 
two  wings,  and  some  even  with  four, 
and  with  two  faces ;  and  others  with 
two  heads,  a  man's  and  a  woman's,  on 
one  body ;  and  there  were  men  with  the 
heads  and  horns  of  goats,  and  men  with 
hoofs  like  horses ;  and  some  with  the 
upper  parts  of  a  man  joined  to  the 
lower  parts  of  a  horse,  like  centaurs ; 
and  there  were  bulls  with  human 
heads,  dogs  with  four  bodies,  and 
with  fishes'  tails ;  men  and  horses  with 
dogs'  heads ;  creatures  with  the  heads 
and  bodies  of  horses,  but  with  the 
tails  of  fish ;  and  other  animals  mix- 
ing the  forms  of  various  beasts. 
Moreover,  there  were  monstrous  fishes 
and  reptiles  and  serpents,  and  divers 
other  creatures,  which  had  borrowed 
something  from  each  other's  shapes, 
of  all  which  the  likenesses  are  still 
preserved  in  the  temple  of  Belus.  A 
woman  ruled  them  all,  by  name  Omor- 
ka,  which  is  in  Chaldee  Thalath,  and 
in  Greek  Thalassa  (or  'the  sea'). 
Then  Belus  appeared,  and  split  the 
woman  in  twain ;  and  of  the  one  half 
of  her  he  made  the  heaven,  and  of 
the  other  half  the  earth ;  and  the 
beasts  that  were  in  her  he  caused  to 
perish.  And  he  split  the  darkness, 
and  divided  the  heaven  and  the  earth 
asunder,  and  put  the  world  in  order, 
and  the  animals  that  could  not  bear 
the  light  perished.  Belus,  upon  this, 
seeing  that  the  earth  was  desolate,  yet 
teeming  with  productive  powers,  com- 
manded one  of  the  gods  to  cut  off  his 
head,  and  to  mix  the  blood  which 
flowed  forth  with  earth,  and  form  men 
therewith  and  beasts  that  could  bear 
the  light.  So  man  was  made,  and  was 
intelligent,  being  a  partaker  of  the 


*  "Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  vii.  p.  177. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


wwtoe 


Divine  wisdom.  Likewise  Belus  made 
the  stars,  and  the  sun  and  the  moon, 
and  the  five  planets."* 

70.  The  only  native  account  which 
has  been  discovered  in  part  resembles 
this,  but  in  many  respects  is  different. 
So  far  as  at  present  deciphered,  it  runs 
thus : — 

"When  the  upper  region  was  not 
yet  called  heaven,  and  the  lower  re- 
gion was  not  yet  called  earth,  and  the 
abyss  of  Hades  had  not  yet  opened 


its 


arms,    then 
re   birth   to 


the  chaos  of  waters 
all ;  and  the  waters 
were  gathered  into  one  place.  Men 
dwelt  not  as  yet  together ;  no  animals 
as  yet  wandered  about;  nor  as  yet 
had  the  gods  been  born  ;  not  as  yet 
had  tlieir  names  been  uttered,  or  their 
attributes  [fixed].  Then  were  born 
the  gods  Lakhmu  and  Lakhamu; 
they  were  born  and  grew  up  .  .  .  . 
Asshur  and  Kisshur  were  born  and 
lived  through  many  days  ....  Anu 

(was  born  next). 

***** 

"•  He  (Anu  ?)  constructed  dwellings 
for  the  great  gods ;  he  fixed  the  con- 
stellations, whose  figures  were  like 
animals.  He  made  the  year  into  por- 
tions ;.  he  divided  it;  twelve  months 
he  established,  with  their  constel- 
lations, three  by  three.  And  from 
among  the  days  of  the  year  he  ap- 
pointed festivals  ;  he  made  dwellings 
for  the  planets,  for  their  rising  and 
for  their  setting.  And,  that  nothing 
should  go  wrong,  nor  come  to  a  stand, 
he  placed  along  with  them  the  dwel- 
lings of  Bel  and  Hea  ;  and  he  opened 
great  gates  on  all  sides,  making  strong 
the  portals  on  the  left  and  on  the 
right.  Moreover,  in  the  center  he 
placed  luminaries.  The  moon  he  set 
on  high  to  circle  through  the  night, 
and  made  it  wander  all  the  night 
until  the  dawning  of  the  day.  Each 
month  without  fail  it  brought  together 
festal  assemblies ;  in  the  beginning  of 
the  month,  at  the  rising  of  the  night, 
shooting  forth  its  horns  to  illuminate 
the  heavens,  and  on  the  seventh  day 
a  holy  day  appointing,  and  com  man  d- 


*  Berosus  ap.  Euseb.  "  Chron.  Can." 
JSyncell.  "  Chronographia,"  vol.  i.  p.  53. 


i.  2: 


\from  all 


ng  on  that  day  a  cessatio 
3usiness.     And  he  (Anu)  set  the  sun 
in    his    place    in     the     horizon     of 
heaven."  * 

The    following    is    the 
account  of  the  Deluge,  as  rendered 
from   the   original   by  the   late    Mr. 
George  Smith  :  t — 

spake   to   me   and   said : — 
Ubaratutu,    make    a    ship 


tr* 
Chaldean 


"Hea 
Son    of 

after  this  fashion 
the  sinners  and  life 


for  I  destroy 
.  and  cause 


to  enter  in  all  the  seed  of  life,  that 
thou  mayest  preserve  them.  The 
ship  which  thou  shalt  make,  .... 
cubits  shall  be  the  measure  of  the 
length  thereof,  and  ....  cubits  the 
measure  of  the  breadth  and  height 
thereof  ;  and  into  the  deep  thou  shalt 
launch  it.'  I  understood,  and  said  to 
Hea,  my  Lord  —  *  Hea,  my  Lord,  this 
which  Thou  commandest  me,  I  will 
perform  :  [though  I  be  derided]  both 
by  young  and  old,  it  shall  be  done/ 
Hea  opened  his  mouth,  and  spake  — 
'  This  shalt  thou  say  to  them  .... 
(hiatus  of  six  lines)  ....  and  enter 
thou  into  the  ship,  and  shut  to  the 
door  ;  and  bring  into  the  midst  of  it 
thy  grain,  and  thy  furniture,  and  thy 
goods,  thy  wealth,  thy  servants,  thy 
female  slaves  and  thy  young  men. 
And  I  will  gather  to  thee  the  beasts 
of  the  field,  and  the  animals,  and  I 
will  bring  them  to  thee  ;  and  they  shall 
be  enclosed  within  thy  door.'  Hasi- 
sadra  his  mouth  opened  and  spake, 
and  said  to  Hea,  his  Lord  —  *  There 
was  not  upon  the  earth  a  man  who 
could  make  the  ship  ....  strong 
[planks]  I  brought  ....  on  the  fifth 
day  ....  in  its  circuit  fourteen 
measures  [it  measured]  ;  in  its  sides 
fourteen  measures  it  measured  .... 
and  upon  it  I  placed  its  roof  and 
closed  [the  door].  On  the  sixth  day  I 
embarked  in  it  :  on  the  seventh  I  ex- 


*  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  ix.  pp.  117- 
118. 

t  Mr.  Smith's  paper,  read  on  Dec.  3,  1872, 
was  first  published  in  the  "  Transactions  of 
the  Society  of  Biblical  Archaeology,"  in  1874. 
It  was  afterward  revised,  and  republished  in 
the  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  xii.  pp.  135- 
141.  The  translation  is  taken  mainly  from 
this  second  version. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


amined  it  without :  on  the  eighth  I 
examined  it  within  ;  planks  against 
the  influx  of  the  waters  I  placed : 
where  I  saw  rents  and  holes,  I  added 
what  was  required.  Three  measures 
of  bitumen  I  poured  over  the  outside  : 
three  measures  of  bitumen  I  poured 
over  the  inside  ....  (five  lines  ob- 
scure and  mutilated)  ....  Wine 
in  receptacles  I  collected,  like  the 
waters  of  a  river ;  also  [food],  like  the 
dust  of  the  earth,  I  collected  in  boxes 
[and  stored  up].  And  Shamas  the 
material  of  the  ship  completed  [and 
made  it]  strong.  And  the  reed  oars 
of  the  ship  I  caused  them  to  bring 

[and  place]  above  and  below 

All  I  possessed  of  silver,  all  I  pos- 
sessed of  gold,  all  I  possessed  of  the 
seed  of  life,  I  caused  to  ascend  into 
the  ship.  All  my  male  servants,  all  my 
female  servants,  all  the  beasts  of  the 
field,  all  the  animals,  all  the  sons  of 
the  people,  I  caused  to  go  up.  A 
flood  Shamas  made,  and  thus  he  spake 
in  the  night :  *  I  will  cause  it  to  rain 
from  heaven  heavily.  Enter  into  the 
midst  of  the  ship,  and  shut  thy 
door.' " 

72.  The  command  of  Shamas  is 
obeyed,  and  then  "The  raging  of  a 
storm  in  the  morning  arose,  from  the 
horizon  of  heaven  extending  far  and 
wide.  Vul  in  the  midst  of  it 
thundered  :  Nebo  and  Saru  went  in 
front :  the  throne-bearers  sped  over 
mountains  and  plains  :  the  destroyer, 
Nergal,  overturned  :  Ninip  went  in 
front  and  cast  down :  the  spirits 
spread  abroad  destruction  :  in  their 
fury  they  swept  the  earth :  the  flood 
of  Vul  reached  to  heaven.  The 
bright  earth  to  a  waste  was  turned : 
the  storm  o'er  its  surface  swept  : 
from  the  face  of  the  earth  was  life 
destroyed  :  the  strong  flood  that  had 
whelmed  mankind  reached  to  heaven  : 
brother  saw  not  brother;  the  flood 
did  not  spare  the  people.  Even  in 
heaven  the  gods  feared  the  tempest, 
and  sought  refuge  in  the  abode  of 
Anu.  Like  dogs  the  gods  crouched 
down,  and  cowered  together.  Spake 
Ishtar,  like  a  child — uttered  the  great 
goddess  her  speech :  '  When  the 


world  to  corruption  turned,  then  I  in 
the  presence  of  the  gods  prophesied 
evil.  When  I  in  the  presence  of  the 
gods  prophesied  evil,  then  to  evil 
were  devoted  all  my  children.  I,  the 
mother,  have  given  birth  to  my  peo- 
ple, and  lo !  now  like  the  young  of 
fishes  they  fill  the  sea.'  The  gods 
were  weeping  for  the  spirits  with  her  ; 
the  gods  in  their  seats  were  sitting  in 
lamentation  ;  covered  were  their  lips 
on  account  of  the  coming  evil.  Six 
days  and  nights  passed ;  the  wind,  the 
flood,  the  storm  overwhelmed.  On 
the  seventh  day,  in  its  course  was 
calmed  the  storm ;  and  all  the  tem- 
pest, which  had  destroyed  like  an 
earthquake,  was  quieted.  The  flood 
He  caused  to  dry  ;  the  wind  and  the 
deluge  ended.  I  beheld  the  tossing 
of  the  sea,  and  mankind  all  turned 
to  corruption  ;  like  reeds  the  corpses 
floated.  I  opened  the  window,  and 
the  light  broke  over  my  face.  It 
passed.  I  sat  down  and  wept ,  over 
my  face  flowed  my  tears.  I  saw  the 
shore  at  the  edge  of  the  sea ;  for  twelve 
measures  the  land  rose.  To  the 
country  of  Nizir  went  the  ship:  the 
mountain  of  Nizir  stopped  the  ship  : 
to  pass  over  it  was  not  able.-  The 
first  clay  and  the  second  clay  the 
mountain  of  Nizir,  the  same ;  the 
third  day  and  the  fourth  day  the 
mountain  of  Nizir,  the  same  ;  the  f.fih 
and  sixth  the  mountain  of  Nizir,  the 
same;  in  the  course  of  the  seventh 
day  i  sent  out  a  dove,  and  it  left. 
The  dove  went  to  and  fro,  and  a 
resting-place  it  did  not  find,  and  it 
returned.  I  sent  forth  a  swallow,  and 
it  left;  the  swallow  went  to  and  fro, 
and  a  resting-place  it  did  not  find,  and 
it  returned.  1  sent  forth  a  raven,  and 
it  left  ;  the  raven  went,  and  the 
corpses  on  the  water  it  saw,  and  it 
did  eat :  it  swam,  and  wandered  away, 
and  returned  not.  I  sent  the  animals 
forth  to  the  four  winds  :  I  poured  out 
a  libation:  I  built  an  altar  on  the 
peak  of  the  mountain  :  seven  jugs  of 
wine  I  took;  at  the  bottom  I  placed 
reeds,  pines,  and  spices.  The  gods 
collected  to  the  burning  :  the  gods  col- 
lected to  the  good  burning.  Like 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[105] 


sumpe  (?)  over  the  sacrifice  they  gath- 
ered.' " 

73.  One  more  example  must  con- 
clude our  specimens  of  the  legends 
current  among  the  Assyrians  and 
Babylonians  in  ancient  times.  As  the 
preceding  passage  is  myth  based  upon 
history,  the  concluding  one  shall  be 
taken  from  that  portion  of  Assyrian 
lore  which  is  purely  and  wholly  imag- 
inative. The  descent  of  Ishtar  to 
Hades,  perhaps  in  search  of  Tammuz, 
is  related  as  follows  *  : — 

"To  the  land  of  Hades,  the  land 
of  her  desire,  Ishtar,  daughter  of  the 
Moon-good  Sin,  turned  her  mind. 
The  daughter  of  Sin  fixed  her  mind  to 
go  to  the  House  where  all  meet,  the 
dwelling  of  the  god  Iskalla,  to  the 
house  which  men  enter,  but  cannot 
depart  from — the  road  which  men 
travel,  but  never  retrace — the  abode 
of  darkness  and  of  famine,  where 
earth  is  their  food,  their  nourishment 
clay — where  light  is  not  seen,  but  in 
darkness  they  dwell — where  ghosts, 
like  birds,  flutter  their  wings,  and  on 
the  door  and  the  door-posts  the  dust 
lies  undisturbed. 

u  When  Ishtar  arrived  at  the  gate 
of  Hades,  to  the  keeper  of  the  gate  a 
word  she  spake  :  '  O  keeper  of  the 
entrance,  open  thy  gate  !  Open  thy 
gate,  I  say  again,»that  I  may  enter  in  ! 
If  thou  openest  not  thy  gate,  if  I  do 
not  enter  in,  I  will  assault  the  door, 
the  gate  I  will  break  down,  I  will  at- 
tack the  entrance,  I  will  split  open 
the  portals.  I  will  raise  the  dead,  to 
be  the  devourers  of  the  living  !  Upon 
the  living  the  dead  shall  prey.'  Then 
the  porter  opened  his  mouth  and  spake, 
and  thus  he  said  to  great  Ishtar: 
*  Stay,  lady,  do  not  shake  down  the 
door;  I  will  go  and  inform  Queen 
Nin-ki-gal.'  So  the  porter  went  in 
and  to  Nin-ki-gal  said  :  *  These  curses 
thy  sister  Ishtar  utters;  yea,  she 
blasphemes  thee  with  fearful  curses.' 
And  Nin-ki-gal,  hearing  the  words, 

*The  translation  of  Mr.  Fox  Talbot,  as 
given  in  the  "  Transactions  of  the  Society  of 
Biblical  Archaeology,"  vol.  Hi.  pp.  119-124, 
and  again  in  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  i! 
pp.  143-149,  is  here  followed. 


grew  pale,  like  a  flower  when  cut  from 
the  stem ;  like  the  stalk  of  a  reed,  she 
shook.  And  she  said,  '  I  will  cure 
her  rage — I  will  speedily  cure  her 
fury.  Her  curses  I  will  repay.  Light 
up  consuming  flames !  Light  up  a 
blaze  of  straw  !  Be  her  doom  with 
the  husbands  who  left  their  wives  ; 
be  her  doom  with  the  wives  who  for- 
sook their  lords  ;  be  her  doom  with 
the  youths  of  dishonored  lives.  Go, 
porter,  and  cpen  the  gate  for  her ;  but 
strip  her,  as  some  have  been  stripped 
ere  now.'  Tne  porter  went  and  opened 
the  gate.  'Lady  of  Tiggaba,  enter,' 
he  said :  *  Enter.  It  is  permitted. 
The  Queen  of  Hades  to  meet  thee 
comes.'  So  the  first  gate  let  her  in, 
but  she  was  stopped,  and  there  the 
great  crown  was  taken  from  her  head. 
'  Keeper,  do  not  take  off  from  me  the 
crown  that  is  on  my  head.'  *  Excuse 
it,  lady,  the  Queen  of  the  Land  insists 
upon  its  removal.'  The  next  gate  let 
her  in,  but  she  was  stopped,  and  there 
the  ear-rings  were  taken  from  her 
ears.  *  Keeper,  do  not  take  off  from 
me  the  ear-rings  from  my  ears.'  *  Ex- 
cuse it,  lady,  the  Queen  of  the  Land 
insists  upon  their  removal.'  The 
third  gate  let  her  in,  but  she  was 
stopped,  and  there  the  precious  stones 
were  taken  from  her  head.  *  Keeper, 
do  not  take  off  from  me  the  gems  that 
adorn  my  head.'  •  Excuse  it,  lady, 
the  Queen  of  the  Land  insists  upon 
their  removal.'  The  fourth  gate  let 
her  in,  but  she  was  stopped,  and  there 
the  small  jewels  were  taken  from  her 
brow.  '  Keeper  do  not  take  off  from 
me  the  small  jewels  that  deck  my 
brow.'  '  Excuse  it,  lady,  the  Queen 
of  the  Land  insists  .upon  their  re- 
moval.' The  fifth  gate  let  her  in,  but 
she  was  stopped,  and  there  the  girdle 
was  taken  from  her  waist.  '  Keeper, 
do  not  take  off  from  me  the  girdle 
that  girds  my  waist.'  *  Excuse  it, 
lady,  the  Queen  of  the  Land  insists 
upon  its  removal.'  The  sixth  gate 
let  her  in,  but  she  was  stopped,  and 
there  the  gold  rings  were  taken  from 
her  hands  and  feet.  *  Keeper,  do  not 
take  off  from  me  the  gold  rings  of  my 
hands  and  feet.'  *  Excuse  it,  lady, 


[106] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


the  Queen  of  the  Land  insists  upon 
their  removal.'  The  seventh  gate  let 
her  in,  but  she  was  stopped,  and  there 
the  last  garment  was  taken  from  her 
body.  'Keeper,  do  not  take  off,  I 
pray,  the  last  garment  from  my  body.' 
'Excuse  it,  lady,  the  Queen  of  the 
Land  insists  upon  its  removal.' 

"  After  that  Mother  Ishtar  had  de- 
scended into  Hades,  Nin-ki-gal  saw 
and  derided  her  to  her  face.  Then 
ishtar  lost  her  reason,  and  heaped 
curses  upon  the  other.  Nin-ki-gal 
hereupon  opened  her  mouth,  and 
spake  :  '  Go,  Namtar,  ....  and  bring 
her  out  for  punishment,  .  .  .  afflict  her 
with  disease  of  the  eye,  the  side,  the 
feet,  the  heart,  the  head  (some  lines 
effaced) 

"  The  Divine  messenger  of  the  gods 
lacerated  his  face  before  them.  The 
assembly  of  the  gods  was  full.  .  .  . 
The  Sun  came,  along  with  the  Moon, 
his  father,  and  weeping  he  spake  thus 
unto  Hea,  the  king :  '  Ishtar  has  de- 
scended into  the  earth,  and  has  not 
risen  again  ;  and  ever  since  the  time 
that  Mother  Ishtar  descended  into 
hell,  ....  the  master  has  ceased 
from'  commanding;  the  slave  has 
ceased  from  obeying.'  Then  the  god 
Hea  in  the  depth  of  his  mind  formed 
a  design  ;  he  modeled,  for  her  escape, 
the  figure  of  a  man  of  clay.  '  Go  to 
save  her,  Phantom,  present  thyself  at 
the  portal  of  Hades ;  the  seven  gates 
of  Hades  will  all  open  before  thee ; 
Nin-ki-gal  will  see  thee,  and  take 
pleasure  because  of  thee.  When  her 
mind  has  grown  calm,  and  her  anger 
has  worn  itself  away,  awe  her  with  the 
names  of  the  great  gods  !  Then  pre- 
pare thy  frauds !  Fix  on  deceitful 
tricks  thy  mind  !  Use  the  chiefest  of 
thy  tricks  !  Bring  forth  fish  out  of  an 
empty  vessel !  That  will  astonish  Nin- 
ki-gal,  and  to  Ishtar  she  will  restore 
her  clothing.  The  reward — a  great 
reward — for  these  things  shall  not 
fail.  Go,  Phantom,  save  her,  and  the 
great  assembly  of  the  people  shall 
crown  thee !  Meats,  the  best  in  the 
city,  shall  be  thy  food !  Wine,  the 
most  delicious  in  the  city,  shall  be  thy 
drink  !  A  royal  palace  shall  be  thy 


dwelling,  a  throne  of  state  shall  be 
thy  seat!  Magician  and  conjurer 
shall  kiss  the  hem  of  thy  garment ! ' 

"  Nin-ki-gal  opened  her  mouth  and 
spake :  to  her  messenger,  Namtar, 
commands  she  gave:  'Go,  Namtar, 
the  Temple  of  Justice  adorn  !  Deck 
the  images  !  Deck  the  altars  !  Bring- 
out  Anunnak,  and  let  him  take  his 
seat  on  a  throne  of  gold !  Pour  out 
for  Ishtar  the  water  of  life;  from 
my  realms  let  her  depart.'  Namtar 
obeyed ;  he  adorned  the  Temple ; 
decked  the  images,  decked  the  altars  ; 
brought  out  Anunnak,  and  let  him 
take  his  seat  on  a  throne  of  gold ; 
poured  out  for  Ishtar  the  water  of 
life,  and  suffered  her  to  depart.  Then 
the  first  gate  let  her  out,  and  gave  her 
back  the  garment  of  her  form.  The 
next  gate  let  her  out,  and  gave  her 
back  the  jewels  for  her  hands  and 
feet.  The  third  gate  let  her  out,  and 
gave  her  back  the  girdle  for  her  waist. 
The  fourth  gate  let  her  out,  and  gave 
her  back  the  small  gems  she  had  worn 
upon  her  brow.  The  fifth  gate  lei 
her  out,  and  gave  her  back  the  precious 
stones  that  had  been  upon  her  head. 
The  sixth  gate  let  her  out,  and  gave 
her  back  the  ear-rings  that  were  taken 
from  her  ears.  And  the  seventh  gale 
let  her  out,  and  gave  her  back  the 
crown  she  had  carried  on  her  head?' 

So  ends  this  curious  legend,  and 
with  it  the  limits  of  our  space  re- 
quire that  we  should  terminate  this 
notice  of  the  religion  of  the  Assyrians 
and  Babylonians. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE     RELIGION     OF     THE     ANCIENT 
IRANIANS. 


6vo  na-f  avrovs  elvai  apx&?, 
ayaObv  dai(j.ova  nal  KCLKOV  dalfjiova.  —  DiOG. 
Laert.  Proem,  /.  2. 

74.  THE  Iranians  were  in  ancient 
times  the  dominant  race  throughout 
the  entire  tract  lying  between  the 
Suliman  mountains  and  the  Pamir 
steppe  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  great 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[107]     2 


Mesopotamia  valley  on  the  other. 
Intermixed  in  portions  of  the  tract 
with  a  Cushite  or  Nigritic,  and  in 
others  with  a  Turanian  element,  they 
possessed,  nevertheless,  upon  the 
whole,  a  decided  preponderance ;  and 
the  tract  itself  has  been  known  as 
"  Ariana,"  or  "  Iran,"  at  any  rate  from 
the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great  to 
the  present  day  !  *  The  region  is  one 
in  which  extremes  are  brought  into 
sharp  contrast,  and  forced  on  human 
observation,  the  summers  being  in- 
tensely hot,  and  the  winters  piercingly 
cold,  the  more  favored  portions  luxuri- 
antly fertile,  the  remainder  an  arid 
and  frightful  desert.  If,  as  seems  to 
be  now  generally  thought  by  the  best 
informed  and  deepest  investigators,t 
the  light  of  primeval  relation  very 
early  faded  away  in  Asia,  and  religions 
there  were  in  the  main  elaborated  out 
of  the  working  upon  the  circumstances 
of  his  environment,  of  that  "  religious 
faculty  "  wherewith  God  had  endowed 
mankind,  we  might  expect  that  in  this 
peculiar*  region  a  peculiar  religion 
should  develop  itself — a  religion  of 
strong  antitheses  and  sharp  contrasts, 
unlike  that  of  such  homogeneous  tracts 
as  the  Nile  valley  and  the  Mesopota- 
mian  plain,  where  climate  was  almost 
uniform,  and  a  monotonous  fertility 
spread  around  universal  abundance. 
The  fact  answers  to  our  natural  antici- 
pation. At  a  time  which  it  is  difficult 
to  date,  but  which  those  best  skilled 
in  Iranian  antiquities  are  inclined  to 
place  before  the  birth  of  Moses, $  there 
grew  up,  in  the  region  whereof  we  are 
speaking,  a  form  of  religion  marked 
by  very  special  and  unusual  features, 
very  unlike  the  religions  of  Egypt  and 
Assyria,  a  thing  quite  sui generis,  one 
very  worthy  of  the  attention  of  those 
who  are  interested  in  the  past  history 
of  the  human  race,  and  more  espe- 

*  Strabo,  who  is  the  earliest  of  extant  writ- 
ers to  use  "  Ariana "  in  this  broad  sense, 
probably  obtained  the  term  from  the  contem- 
poraries of  Alexander.  It  was  certainly  used 
by  Apollodorus  of  Artemita  (ab.  B.C.  130). 

t  See  Max  Miiller,  "  Introduction  to  the 
Science  of  Religion,"  Lecture  I.  pp.  40,  41. 

\  Haug,  "  Essays  on  the  Religion,  etc.,  of 
the  Parsees,"  p.  255. 


cially  of  such  as  wish  to  study   the 
history  of  religions. 

75.  Ancient  tradition  associates  this 
religion  with  the  name  of  Zoroaster. 
Zoroaster,  or  Zarathrustra,  according 
to  the   native   spelling,*  was,  by  one 
account,!  a   Median   king  who  con- 
quered Babylon   about  B.C.  2458.     By 
another,  which  is  more  probable,  and 
which  rests,  moreover,  on  better  au- 
thority, he  was  a  Bactrian,$  who,  at  a 
date  not  quite  so   remote,  came  for- 
ward in  the  broad  plain  of  the  middle 
Oxus  to  instill  into  the  minds  of  his 
countrymen  the  doctrines  and  precepts 
of  a  new   religion.     Claiming   divine 
inspiration,    and    professing  to   hold 
from  time  to  time  direct  conversation 
with  the  Supreme  Being,  he  delivered 
his  revelations  in  a  mythical  form,  and 
obtained  their  general  acceptance  as 
divine  by  the  Bactrian  people.     His 
religion  gradually  spread  from  "  happy 
Bactra,"  "Bactfa   of   the    lofty   ban- 
ner,'^ first  to  the  neighboring  coun- 
tries, and  then  to  all   the  numerous 
tribes  of  the  Iranians,  until  at  last  it 
became  the  established  religion  of  the 
mighty  empire  of  Persia,  which,  in  the 
middle  of  the  sixth  century  before  our 
era,  established  itself  on  the  ruins  of 
the   Assyrian   and    Babylonian  king- 
doms, and  shortly  afterward  overran 
and   subdued   the  ancient  monarchy 
of  the  Pharaohs.     In  Persia  it  main- 
tained its  ground,  despite  the  shocks 
of   Grecian    and   Parthian    conquest, 
until  Mohammedan  intolerance  drove 
it  out  at  the  point  of  the  sword,  and 
forced  it  to  seek  a  refuge  further  east, 
in  the  peninsula  of  Hindustan.     Here 
it  still   continues,  in  Gtizerat   and  in 
Bombay,  the  creed  of  that  ingenious 
and  intelligent  people  known  to  An- 
glo-Indians— and  may  we  not  say  to 
Englishmen  generally  ? — as  Parsees. 

76.  The  religion  of  the  Parsees  is 
contained  in  a  volume  of  some  size, 


*  See  "  Zendavesta,"/<z.m#z. 

t  Berosus  ap.  Syncell.  "  Chronographia,"  p. 


147. 


\  Hermipp.  ap.  Arnob.  "  Adv.  Gentes,"  i. 
52;  Justin,  i.  i ;  Amm.  Marc,  xxiii.  6;  Moses 
Choren.  "  Hist.  Armen."  i.  5. 

§  "  Vendidad,"  Farg.  ii.  s.  7. 


80    [1031 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


which  has  received  the  name  of  "  the 
Zendavesta.''  *  Subjected  for  the  last 
fifty  years  to  the  searching  analysis 
of  first-rate  orientalists  —  Burnouf, 
Westergaard,  Brockhaus,  Spiegel, 
Haug,  Windischmann,  Hiibschmann 
— this  work  has  been  found  to  belong 
in  its  various  parts  to  very  different 
dates,  and  to  admit  of  being  so  dis- 
sected t  as  to  reveal  to  us,  not  only 
what  are  the  tenets  of  the  modern 
Parsees,  but  what  was  the  earliest 
form  of  that  religion  whereof  theirs  is 
the  remote  and  degenerate  descendant. 
Signs  of  a  great  antiquity  are  found 
to  attach  to  the  language  of  certain 
rhythmical  compositions,  called  Ga- 
thas  or  hymns ;  and  the  religious  ideas 
contained  in  these  are  found  to  be  at 
once  harmonious,  and  also  of  a  sim- 
pler and  more  primitive  character 
than  those  contained  in  the  rest  of 
the  volume.  From  the  Gathas  chiefly, 
but  also  to  some  extent  from  other, 
apparently  very  ancient,  portions  of 
the  Zendavesta,  the  characteristics  of 
the  early  Iranian  religion  have  been 
drawn  out  by  various  scholars,  partic- 
ularly by  Dr.  Martin  Haug;  and  it  is 
from  the  labors  of  these  writers,  in  the 
main,  that  we  shall  be  content  to 
draw  our  picture  of  the  religion  in 
question. 

77.  The  most  striking  feature  of 
the  religion,  and  that  which  is  gener- 
ally allowed  to  be  its  leading  charac- 
teristic, is  the  assertion  of  Dualism. 
By  Dualism  we  mean  the  belief  in  two 
original  uncreated  principles,  a  princi- 
ple of  good  and  a  principle  of  evil. 
This  creed  was  not  perhaps  contained 
in  the  teaching  of  Zoroaster  himself,}: 

*  Anquetil  Duperron  introduced  the  sacred 
book  of  the  Pavsees  to  the  knowledge  of  Eu- 
ropeans under  this  name  ;  and  the  word  thus 
introduced  can  scarcely  be  now  displaced. 
Otherwise  "  Avesta-Zend  "  might  be  recom- 
mended as  the  more  proper  title.  "  Avesta" 
means  "text,"  and  "Zend"  means  "com- 
ment." "Avesta  u  Zend,"  or  "Text  and 
Comment"  is  the  proper  title,  which  is  then 
contracted  into  "  Avesta-Zend." 

f  Haug,  "  Essays,"  pp.  136-138;  Max  Mul- 
ler,  "  Introduction  to  the  Science  of  Relig- 
ion," pp.  26-29. 

J  See  the  Author's  "  Ancient  Monarchies," 
vol.  iii.  pp.  104,  105. 


but  it  was  developed  at  so  early  a  date  * 
out  of  that  teaching,  that  in  treating 
generally  of  the  Iranian  religion  we 
must  necessarily  regard  Dualism  as  a 
part  of  it.  The  Iranians  of  historic 
times  held  that  from  all  eternity  there 
had  existed  two  mighty  and  rival  be- 
ings, the  authors  of  all  other  existences, 
who  had  been  engaged  in  a  perpetual 
contest,  each  seeking  to  injure,  baffle, 
and  in  every  way  annoy  and  thwart  the 
other.  Both  principles  were  real  per- 
sons, possessed  of  will,  intelligence, 
power,  consciousness,  and  other  per- 
sonal qualities.  To  the  one  they  gave 
the  name  of  Ahura-Mazda,  to  the  other 
that  of  Angro-Mainyus. 

78.  Here  let  us  pause  for  a  mo- 
ment, and  consider  the  import  of  these 
two  names.  Names  of  deities,  as 
Professor  Max  Miiller  has  well  pointed 
out,f  are  among  the  most  interesting 
of  studies ;  and  a  proper  understand- 
ing of  their  meaning  throws  frequently 
very  considerable  light  on  the  nature 
and  character  of  a  religion.  Now, 
Ahura-Mazda  is  a  word  composed  of 
three  elements:  "Ahura,"  "maz," 
"  da."  The  first  of  these  is  properly 
an  adjective,  signifying,  "living;  "it 
corresponds  to  "asura"  in  Sanskrit, 
and  like  that  passes  from  an  adjecti- 
val to  a  substantival  force,  and  is  used 
for  "  living  being,"  especially  for  liv- 
ing beings  superior  to  man.  Perhaps 
it  may  be  best  expressed  in  English 
by  the  word  "  spirit,"  only  that  we 
must  not  regard  absolute  immaterial- 
ity as  implied  in  it.  "Maz"  is  cog- 
nate to  the  "maj"  in  major,  and  the 
"  mag  "  or  "  meg  "  in  "  magnus  "  and 
pfr/af ;  it  is  an  intensitive,  and  means 
"  much."  "  Da  "  or  "  dao  "  is  a  word 
of  a  double  meaning ;  it  is  a  partici- 
ple, or  verbal  adjective,  and  signifies 
either  "giving"  or  "knowing,"  being 
connected  with  the  Latin  "do," 
"dare"  (Greek  6i6o/u),  "to  give," 
and  with  the  Greek  dafjvai, 


*  The  Second  Fargard  of  the  "  Vendidad," 
which  from  internal  evidence  may  be  pro- 
nounced earlier  than  B.C.  800,  is  as  strongly 
Dualistic  as  any  other  portion  of  the  volume. 

t  "  Introduction  to  the  Science  of  Relig- 
ion," Lecture  III.  pp.  171  et  seqq. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[109] 


u<to  know,"  "knowing."  The  entire 
word,  "  Ahura-Mazda,"  thus  means 
either,  "  the  much-knowing  spirit,"  or 
the  "much-giving  spirit,"  the  "all- 
bountiful,"  or  "  the  all-wise."  * 

79.  Angro-Mainyus    contains    two 
elements  only,  an  adjective  and  a  sub- 
stantive.     "Angro"  is  akin  to  "ni- 
ger,"  and  so  to  "  negro ;  "  it  means 
simply  "black"  or  "dark."     "  Main- 
yus,"  a  substantive,  is  the  exact  equiv- 
alent of  the  Latin  "mens,"  and  the 
Greek     pho?.      It     means     "mind," 
"  intelligence."      Thus    Angro-Main- 
yus   is   the   "  black   or   dark   intelli- 
gence." 

80.  Thus   the    names    themselves 
sufficiently   indicated   to    those   who 
first  used  them  the  nature  of  the  two 
beings.     Ahura-Mazda   was  the  "  all- 
bountiful,   all  wise,  living  being"   or 
"  spirit,"  who  stood  at  the  head  of  all 
that  was  good  and  lovely,  beautiful 
and  delightful.     Angro-Mainyus  was 
the  "  dark  and  gloomy  intelligence," 
that  had  from  the  first  been  Ahura- 
Mazda's   enemy,   and   was    bent  on 
thwarting  and  vexing  him.     And  with 
these  fundamental  notions  agreed  all 
that  the  sacred  books  taught  concern- 
ing either  being.     Ahura-Mazda  was 
declared  to   be  "  the  creator  of  life, 
the  earthly  and  the  spiritual ;  "  he  had 
made  "  the  celestial  bodies,"  "  earth, 
water,  and   trees,"    "all  good  creat- 
ures," and   "all   good,  true  things." 
He   was    "good,"    "holy,"    "pure," 
"  true,"  "  the   holy  god,"   "  the   holi- 
est," "the  essence   of  truth,"   "the 
father  of  truth,"  "the  best  being  of 
ali,"   "the  master   of    purity."      Su- 
premely happy,  he   possessed  every 
blessing,  "health,  wealth,  virtue,  wis- 
dom, immortality."t     From  him  came 
all  good  to  man — on  the  pious  and 
the  righteous  he  bestowed,  not  only 
earthly  advantages,  but  precious  spir- 


ary, 
"  Auramazda." 

t  The  expressions  in  inverted  commas  are 
all  taken  from  Haug's  translations  of  the 
Yasna  given  in  his  "Essays."  The  exact 
place  of  each  is  noted  in  the  Author's  "  An- 
cient Monarchies,"  vol.  iii.  p.  96. 


itual  gifts,  truth,  devotion,  "  the  good 
mind,"  and  everlasting  happiness ; 
and,  as  he  rewarded  the  good,  so  he 
also  punished  the  bad,  although  this 
was  an  aspect  in  which  he  was  but 
seldom  contemplated. 

81.  Angro-Mainyus,   on    the  other 
hand,  was  the  creator   and  upholder 
of  everything    that    was   evil.      Op- 
posed to  Ahura-Mazda  from  the  be- 
ginning, he  had   been  engaged   in  a 
perpetual  warfare  with  him.      What- 
ever good   thing    Ahura-Mazda    had 
created,     Angro-Mainyus     had     cor- 
rupted and   ruined   it.*     Moral   and 
physical   evils  were  alike  at  his  dis- 
posal.     He   could    blast   the    earth 
with  barrenness,  or  make  it  produce 
thorns,  thistles,  and  poisonous  plants ; 
his  were  the  earthquake,  the  storm, 
the  plague   of  hail,  the  thunderbolt; 
he  could  cause    disease  and    death, 
sweep  off  a  nation's   flocks  and  herds 
by  murrain,   or  depopulate   a  Conti- 
nent by    pestilence ;    ferocious    wild 
beasts,  serpents,  toads,  mice,  hornets, 
mosquitoes,    were    his   creation  ;    he 
had  invented  and  introduced  into  the 
world  the  sins  of  witchcraft,  murder, 
unbelief,    cannibalism ;     he    excited 
wars  and  tumults,  continually  stirred 
up  the  bad  against  the  good,  and  la- 
bored  by    every  possible    expedient 
to    make  vice   triumph   over   virtue. 
Ahura-Mazda  could  exercise  no  con- 
trol  over  him ;  the    utmost    that   he 
could   do   was   to   keep   a  perpetual 
watch   upon    his  rival,  and   seek  to 
baffle  and  defeat  him.     This  he  was 
not  always  able  to  dp  ;  despite  his  best 
endeavors,    Angro-Mainyus   was   not 
unfrequently  victorious. 

82.  The    two    great    beings    who 
thus  divided  between    them  the  em- 
pire of  the  universe,  were  neither  of 
them  content  to    be  solitary.     Each 
had  called  into  existence  a  number  of 
inferior    spirits,   who    acknowledged 
their  sovereignty,  fought  on  their  side, 
and  sought  to  execute  their  behests. 
At  the   head  of  the  good   spirits  sub- 
ject to   Ahura-Mazda  stood   a   band 


*  See  the  Second  Fargard  of  the  "  Vendi- 
dad,"  which  is  given  at  length  in  the  above- 
mentioned  work,  vol.  iii.  pp.  238-240. 


32     [110J 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


of  six  dignified  with  the  title  of 
Amesha-Spentas,  or  "  Immortal  Holy 
Ones,"  the  chief  assistants  of  the 
Principle  of  Good  both  in  counsel  and 
in  action.  These  were  Vohu-mano, 
or  Bahrnan,  the  "  Good  Mind  "  ;  Asha- 
vahista,  or  Ardibehesht,  "  the  High- 
est Truth ; "  Khshathra-vairya,  or 
Shahravar,  the  genius  of  wealth : 
Spenta-Armaiti  (Island-armat),  the 
genius  of  the  Earth :  Haurvatat 
(Khordad),  the  genius  of  Health : 
and  Ameretat  (Amerdat),  the  genius 
of  Immortality.*  In  direct  antithesis 
to  these  stood  the  band,  likewise  one 
of  six,  which  formed  the  council  and 
chief  support  of  Angro-Mainyus, 
namely,  Akomano,  "-the  Bad  Mind  "  : 
Indra,  the  god  of  storms :  Saurva  : 
Naonhaitya  :  Taric  :  and  Zaric.f  Be- 
sides these  leading  spirits  there  was 
marshaled  on  either  side  an  innu- 
merable host  cf  lesser  and  subordinate 
ones,  called  respectively  ahuras  and 
devas,  who  constituted  the  armies  or 
attendants  of  the  two  great  powers, 
and  were  employed  by  them  to  work 
out  their  purposes.  The  leader  of  the 
angelic  hosts,  or  ahuras,  was  a  glori- 
ous being,  called  Sraosha  or  Serosh  \ 
— "  the  good,  tall,  fair  Serosh,"  who 
stood  in  the  Zoroastrian  system  where 
Michael  the  Archangel  stands  in  the 
Christian. §  The  armies  of  Angro- 
Mainyus  had  no  such  single  leader, 
but  fought  under  the  orders  of  a 
number  of  co-equal  captains,  as 
Drukhs,  "  destruction  "  :  Aeshemo, 
"  rapine  " :  Daivis,  "  deceit "  :  Driwis, 
"  poverty "  :  and  others.  Offering 
an  uninterrupted  and  dogged  resist- 


*  Haug,  "  Essays,"  p.  263 ;  Pusey,  "  Lect- 
ures on  Daniel,"  pp.  536,  537. 

t  Haug,  1.  s.  c. ;  Windischmann,  "  Zoroas- 
trische  Studient,"  p.  59. 

\  On  Serosh,  see  the  Author's  "Ancient 
Monarchies,"  vol.  iii.  pp.  99,  112. 

§  It  is  no  doubt  true,  as  Dr.  Pusey  ob- 
serves ("  Lectures  on  Daniel,"  p.  535),  that 
the  character  of  the  Amesha-Spentas,  and  of 
the  other  great  spirits  or  genii  of  the  Zenda- 
vesta,  is  altogether  "  below  that  of  the  holy 
angels,"  and  that  the  term  "  archangel,"  if 
applied  to  any  of  them,  is  ".a  misnomer  "  (Ibid. 
p.  538).  But  still  there  is  sufficient  resem- 
blance to  make  the  comparison  natural  and 
not  improper. 


ance  to  the  army  of  Ahura-Mazda, 
they  maintained  the  struggle  on  some- 
thing like  equal  terms,  and  showed  no 
sign  of  any  intention  to  make  their 
submission. 

83.  Neither  Ahura-Mazda  nor  the 
Amesha-Spentas  were  represented  by 
the  early  Iranians  under  any  material 
forms.     The  Zoroastrian  system  was- 
markedly  anti-idolatrous  :  and  the  ut- 
most that  was  allowed  the  worshiper 
was  an  emblematic  representation  of 
the    Supreme    Being  by  means  of   a 
winged  circle,  with  which  was  occa- 
sionally combined  an  incomplete  hu- 
man figure,  robed  and  wearing  a  tiara. 
A  four-winged  figure  at  Murgab,  the 
ancient  Pasargadae,  is  also  possibly  a 
representation  of   Serosh ;  out  other- 
wise the  objects  of  their  religious  re- 
gards were  not  exhibited  in  material 
shapes  by  the  early  Iranians. 

84.  Among  the  angelic  beings  rev- 
erenced by  the  Iranians  lower  than 
the   Amesha-Spentas,  but   still   of   a 
very   high    rank    and    dignity,    were 
Mithra,  the  genius  of  light,  early  iden- 
tified with  the  sun  ;  Tistrya,  the  Dog- 
star;*  Airyaman,  a  genius  presiding 
over  marriage  ;  f  and  others.    Mithra 
was  originally  not  held  in  very  high 
esteem  ;  but  by  degrees  he  was  ad- 
vanced, and  ultimately  came  to  occu- 
py a  place  only  a  little  inferior  to  that 
assigned   from    the   first    to    Ahura- 
Mazda.    Darius,  the  son  of  Hystaspes, 
placed  the  emblems  of  Ahura-Mazda 
and  of  Mithra  in  equally  conspicuous 
positions    on  the   sculptured    tablet 
above  his  tomb  ;  and  his  example  was 
followed  by  all  the  later  monarchs  of 
his  race  whose  sepulchres  are    still 
in  existence. \     Artaxerxes   Mnemon 
placed    an   image   of   Mithra  in   the 
temple  attached  to  the  royal  palace  at 
Susa.§      He  also  in  his  inscriptions 
unites  Mithra  with  Ahura-Mazda,  and 
prays  for  their  conjoint  protection.! 
Artaxerxes   Ochus  does  the   same  a 


*  "  Zendavesta,"  iii.  72  (Spiegel's  edition). 

t  Haug,  "  Essays,"  p.  231. 

\  See  the  Author's  "  Ancient  Monarchies," 
vol.  iv.  p.  334,  and  Flandin,  "  Voyage  en 
Perse,"  pis.  164,  bis,  166,  173-176. 

§  Loftus  "  Chaldaea  and  Susiana,"  p.  372. 

il  Ibid. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[Ill]    33 


little  later ;  *  and  the  practice  is  also 
observed  in  portions  of  the  Zenda- 
vesta  composed  about  this  period,  f 
Ahura-Mazda  and  Mithra  are  called 
"  the  two  great  ones,"  "  the  two  great, 
imperishable,  and  pure."  $ 

85.  The  position  of  man  in  the  cos- 
mic scheme  was  determined  by  the 
fact  that  he  was  among  the  creations 
of  Ahura-Mazda.  Formed  and  placed 
on  earth  by  the  Good  Being,  he  was 
bound  to  render  him  implicit  obedi- 
ence, and  to  oppose  to  the  utmost 
Angro-Mainyus  and  his  creatures. 
His  duties  might  be  summed  up  under 
the  four  heads  of  piety,  purity,  in- 
dustry, and  veracity.  Piety  was  to 
be  shown  by  an  acknowledgment  of 
Ahura-Mazda  as  the  One  True  God, 
by  a  reverential  regard  for  the  Ame- 
sha-Spentas  and  the  Izeds,  or  lower 
angels,  by  the  frequent  offering  of 
prayers,  praises,  and  thanksgivings, 
the  recitation  of  hymns,  the  occasional 
sacrifice  of  animals,  and  the  perform- 
ance from  time  to  time  of  a  curious 
ceremony  known  as  that  of  the  Ha- 
oma  or  Homa.  This  consisted  in  the 
extraction  of  the  juice  of  the  Homa 
plant  by  the  priests  during  the  recita- 
tion of  prayers,  the  formal  presenta- 
tion of  the  liquid  extracted  to  the  sac- 
rificial fire,  the  consumption  of  a  small 
portion  of  it  by  one  of  the  officiating 
ministers,  and  the  division  of  the  re- 
mainder among  the  worshipers. §  In 
sacrifices  the  priests  were  also  neces- 
sary go-betweens.  The  most  ap- 
proved victim  was  the  horse  ;  ||  but  it 
was  likewise  allowable  to  offer  oxen, 
sheep,  or  goats.  The  animal  having 
been  brought  before  an  altar  on  which 
burnt  the  sacred  fire,  kindled  origin- 
ally (according  to  the  general  belief) 
from  heaven,  was  there  slain  by  a 
priest,  who  took  of  the  flesh  and 

*  Sir  H.  Rawlinson  "  Cuneiform  Inscrip- 
tions," vol.  i.  p.  342. 

t  "  Yasna,"  i.  34  ;  ii.  44 ;  iii.  48  ;  "  Mihr 
Yasht,"  i  [3. 

J  See  Pusey's  "  Lectures  on  Daniel," 
p.  542,  note  3. 

§  See  Haug, "  Essays,"  p.  239. 

y  "Yasna,"  xliv.  18.  Compare  Xen. 
"  Cyrop."  v-iii.  3,  §  24  ;  and  Ovid,  "  Fasti,"  i. 
38S- 


showed  it  to  the  sacrificial  fire,  after 
which  the  victim  was  cooked  and 
eaten  at  a  solemn  meal  by  the  priests 
and  worshipers  united. 

86.  The  purity  required  of  the  Irani- 
ans was  inward  as  well  as  outward. 
Outward  purity  had  to  be  maintained 
by  a  multiplicity  of  external  observ- 
ances,*  forming   in    their   entirety  a 
burden  as  heavy  to  bear  as  that  im- 
posed by  the  Mosaic  ceremonial  law 
on  the  people  of  Israel.     But  inward 
purity  was  not  neglected.     Not  only 
were  the  Iranians  required  to  refrain 
from  all  impure  acts,  but  also  from 
impure  words,  and  even  from  impure 
thoughts.      Ahura-Mazda    was    "the 
pure,  the  master  of  purity,"  and  would 
not  tolerate  less  than  perfect  purity  in 
his  votaries. 

87.  The  industry  required  by  the 
Zoroastrian  religion  was  of  a  peculiar 
kind.      Man   was   placed    upon    the 
earth     to     preserve     Ahura-Mazda's 
"  good  creation  ;  "  and  this  could  only 
be  done  by  careful  tilling  of  the  soil, 
eradication  of  thorns  and  weeds,  and 
reclamation  of  the  tracts  over  which 
Angro-Mainyus  had  spread  the  curse 
of  barrenness.     To  cultivate  the  soil 
was  thus  a  religious  duty:  f  the  whole 
community  was  required  to  be  agricult- 
ural ;    and   either    as   proprietor,  as 
farmer,  or  as  laboring  man,  each  Zo- 
roastrian was  bound  to  "further  the 
works  of  life  "  by  advancing  tillage. 

88.  The  duty  of  veracity  was  incul- 
cated perhaps  more  strenuously  than 
any  other.      "The  Persian  youth  are 
taught,"    says    Herodotus,!     "  three 
things,  and  three  things  only  :  to  ride, 
to  draw  the  bow,  and   to  speak  the 
truth."     Ahura-Mazda  was  the  "  true 
spirit,"  §  and  the  chief  of  the  Amesha^ 
Spentas  was  Asha-vahista,  "the  best 
truth."-     Druj,   "falsehood,"  is  held 
up  to  detestation,  alike  in  the  Zenda- 
vesta  and  in   the  Persian   cuneiform 
inscriptions, i|  as  the  basest,  the  most 


*  "  Vendidad,"  Farg.  8-u,  and  16,  17. 
t  "  Yasna,"  xxxiii.  3. 
J  Herod,  i.  136. 
§  "  Yasna,"  xxxv.  3. 

||  Sir  H.  Rawlinson,  "  Cuneiform  Inscrip- 
tions." vol.  i.  pp.  200,  244,  245,  etc. 


[112] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


contemptible,  and  the  most  pernicious 
of  vices. 

89.  If  it  be  asked  what  opinions  were 
entertained  by  the  Zoroastrians  con- 
cerning man's  ultimate  destiny,  the 
answer  would  seem  to  be,  that  they 
were  devout  and  earnest  believers  in 
the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  a  con- 
scious future  existence.  It  was  taught 
that  immediately  after  death  the  souls 
of  men,  both  good  and  bad,  proceeded 
together  along  an  appointed  path  to 
the  "bridge  of  the  gatherer."  There 
was  a  narrow  road  conducting  to 
heaven,  or  paradise,  over  which  the 
souls  of  the  good  alone  could  pass, 
while  the  wicked  fell  from  it  into  the 
gulf  below,  where  they  found  them- 
selves in  the  place  of  punishment. 
The  pious  soul  was  assisted  across 
the  bridge  by  the  angel  Serosh,  "  the 


happy,  well-formed,  swift,  tall 
rosh,"  who  went  out  to  meet 
weary  wayfarer,  and  sustained 
steps  as  he  effected  the  difficult  pas- 
sage. The  prayers  of  his  friends  in 
this  world  much  availed  the  deceased, 
and  helped  him  forward  greatly  on 
his  journey.  As  he  entered,  the  angel 
Vohu-mano  rose  from  his  throne,  and 
greeted  him  with  the  words — "  How 
happy  art  thou,  who  hast  come  here 
to  us,  exchanging  mortality  for  im- 
mortality ! "  Then  the  good  soul 
went  joyfully  onward  to  the  golden 
throne,  to  paradise.  As  for  the 
wicked,  when  they  fell  into  the  gulf, 
they  found  themselves  in  outer  dark- 
ness, in  the  kingdom  of  Angro-Main- 
yus,  where  they  were  forced  to  remain 
in  a  sad  and  wretched  condition.* 

90.  It  has  been  maintained  by 
some  that  the  early  Iranians  also 
held  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection 
of  the  body.f  Such  a  doctrine  is 
certainly  contained  in  the  more  re- 
cent portions  of  the  Zendavesta  ;  and 
it  is  argued  that  there  are  expres- 
sions in  the  more  ancient  parts  of  that 
work  which  imply  it,  if  they  do  not 
actually  assert  it.  But  a  careful  ex- 
amination of  the  passages  adduced 

*  "  Vendidad,"  xix.  30-32  ; 
says,"  p.  156, 

f  Hang,  "  Essays,"  p.  266. 


makes  it  evident,  that  no  more  is  in 
reality  asserted  in  them  than  the 
continued  existence  of  the  soul ;  and 
Spiegel  comes  to  the  conclusion  that, 
even  so  late  as  the  time  when  the 
"  Vendidad  "  was  written,  "  the  res- 
urrection of  the  body  was  not  yet 
known  to  the  Parsees,"*  or  Persians. 


91.  The   original 
Iranians  was  Dualism   of 


religion 


of    the 
a  very  pro- 


nounced type,  assigning,  as  it  did,  to 
Angro-Mainyus  complete  independ- 
ence of  Ahura-Mazda,  and  equal 
eternity  with  him,  with  almost  equal 
power.  It  verged  upon  polytheism 
by  the  very  important  position  which 
it  assigned  to  certain  of  the  ahuras  or 
angels,  whom  it  coupled  with  the 
Principle  of  Good  in  a  way  which 
derogated  from  his  supreme  and  un- 
rivaled dignity.f  In  its  morality  it 
Se-  maintained  a  high  tone ;  but  it  im- 
the  posed  on  its  followers  a  burdensome 
his  yoke  of  ceremonial  observances.  It 
taught  a  future  life,  with  happiness 
for  the  good  and  misery  for  the 
wicked ;  but  unfortunately  inclined 
to  identify  goodness  with  orthodoxy, 
and  wickedness"  with  a  rejection  of 
the  doctrine  of  Zoroaster. 

92.  It  may  help  the  reader  to  un- 
derstand the  inner  spirit  of  the  re- 
ligion, if  we  give  one  or  two  speci- 
mens of  the  hymns  which  constituted 
so  important  a  part  of  the  Zoroastrian 
worship.  The  following  is  one  of  the 
Gathas,  and  is  by  some  assigned  to 
Zoroaster  himself  t: — 

"  Now  will  I  speak  and  proclaim  to  all  who 
have  come  to  listen 

Thy  praise,  Ahura-Mazda,  and  thine,  O  Vohu- 
mano. 

Asha !  I  ask  that  thy  grace  may  appear  in 
the  lights  of  heaven. 

Hear  with  your  ears  what  is  best,  perceive 
with  your  minds  what  is  purest, 

So  that  each  man  for  himself  may,  before  the 
great  doom  cometh, 

Choose  the  creed  he  prefers.  May  the  wise 
ones  be  on  our  side. 

-*  Spiegel,  "  A  vesta,"  vol.  ii.  p.  248,  249. 

t  Pusey,  "  Lectures  on  Daniel,"  p.  535,  n.  9. 

|  Hiibschmann,  "  Ein  Zoroastrisches  Lied, 
f  mit  Riicksicht  auf  die  Tradition,  ubersetzt 
Haug,  "  Es-  |  und  erklart."  Miinchen,  1872.  Compare 
|  Max  Mullen  "  Lectures  on  the  Science  of 
1  Religion,"  pp.  237-239. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


35 


These  two  Spirits  are  twins ;  they  made 
known  in  times  that  are  bygone 

That  which  is  good  and  evil,  in  thought,  and 
word,  and  action. 

Rightly  decided  between  them  the  good  ;  not 
so  the  evil. 

When  these  Two  came  together,  first  of  all 

they  created 
Life  and  death,  that  at  last  there  might  be  for 

such  as  are  evil 
Wretchedness,  but  for  the  good  a  happy  blest 

existence. 

Of  these  Two  the  One  who  was  evil  chose 

what  was  evil  ; 
He  who  was  kind  and  good,  whose  robe  was 

the  changeless  Heaven, 
Chose  what  was  right;    those,  too,   whose 

works  pleased  Ahura-Mazda. 

They  could  not  rightly  discern  who  erred  and 

worshiped  the  Devas ; 
They  the  Bad  Spirit  chose,  and,  having  held 

counsel  together, 
Turned  to  Rapine,  that  so  they  might  make 

man's  life  an  affliction. 

But  to  the  good  came  might ;  and  with  might 

came  wisdom  and  virtue  ; 
Armaiti  herself,   the    Eternal,  gave  to  their 

bodies 
Vigor  ;  e'en  thou  wert  enriched  bv  the  gifts 

that  she  scattered,  O  Mazda. 

Mazda,  the  time  will  come  when  the  crimes 
of  the  bad  shall  be  punished ; 

Then  shall  thy  power  be  displayed  in  fitly  re- 
warding the  righteous — 

Them  that  have  bound  and  delivered  up 
falsehood  to  Asha  the  Truth-God. 

Let  us  then  be  of  those  who  advance  this 
world  and  improve  it, 

O  Ahura-Mazda,  O  Truth-God  bliss  con- 
ferring ! 

Let  our  minds  be  ever  there  where  wisdom 
abideth ! 

Then  indeed  shall  be  seen  the  fall  of  perni- 
cious falsehood ; 

But  in  the  house  where  dwel)  Vohu-mano, 
Mazda,  and  Asha — 

Beautiful  house  shall  be  gathered  forever 
such  as  are  worthy. 

O  men,  if  you  but  cling  to  the  precepts  Mazda 
has  given, 

Precepts,  which  to  the  bad  are  a  torment,  but 
joy  to  the  righteous, 

Then  shall  you  one  day  find  yourselves  vic- 
torious through  them." 

Our  other  specimen  is  taken  from  .the 
"  Yasna,"  or  "  Book  on  Sacrifice," 
and  is  probably  some  centuries  later 
than  the  great  bulk  of  the  Gathas*: — 


;  "  We  worship   Ahura-Mazda,  the   pure,  the 

master  of  purity : 

We  worship  the  Amesha-Spentas,  possessors 
and  givers  of  blessings : 

We  worship  the  whole  creation  of  Him  who 

is  True,  the  heavenly, 
With  the  terrestrial,  all   that  supports   the 

good  creation, 
All  that  favors  the  spread  of  the  good  Mazd- 

yasna*  religion. 

We   praise  whatever  is  good  in  thought,  in 

word,  or  in  action, 
Past  or  future  ;  we  also  keep  clean  whatever 

is  excellent. 

O  Ahura-mazda,  thou  true  and  happy  being  ! 
We  strive  both  to  think,  and  to  speak,   and 

to  do  whatever  is  fittest 
Both  our  lives  t  to  preserve,  and  bring  them 

both  to  perfection. 

Holy  Spirit  of  Earth,  for  our  best  works'^ 

sake,  we  entreat  thee, 
Grant  us  beautiful  fertile  fields — aye,  grant 

them  to  all  men, 
Believers  and  unbelievers,  the  wealthy  and 

those  that  have  nothing." 

93.  The  religion  of  the  early  Irani- 
ans became  corrupted  after  a  time  by 
an  admixture  of  foreign  superstitions. 
The  followers  of  Zoroaster,  as  they 
spread  themselves  from  their  original 
seat  upon  the  Oxus  over  the  regions 
lying  south  and  south-west  of  the  Cas- 
I  pian  Sea,  were  brought  into  contact 
with  a  form  of  faith  considerably  dif- 
ferent from  that  to  which  they  had 
previously  been  attached,  yet  well 
adapted  for  blending  with  it.  This 
was  Magism,  or  the  worship  of  the 
elements.  The  early  inhabitants  of 
Armenia,  Cappadocia,  and  the  Zagros 
mountain-range,  had,  under  circum- 
stances that  are  unknown  to  us,  de- 
veloped this  form  of  religion,  and  had 
associated  with  its  tenets  a  priest-caste, 
claiming  prophetic  powers,  and  a 
highly  sacerdotal  character.  The  es- 
sentials of  the  religion  were  these : 
the  four  elements,  fire,  air,  earth,  and 


*  Haug,  "  Essays,"  pp.  162, 163. 


*  "  Mazd-yasna  "  means  "  Ahura-mazda 
worshiping."  Mazdisn  was  used  commonly 
to  designate  the  orthodox,  under  the  Sassa- 
nians. 

t  The  two  lives  are  "  the  life  of  the  soul  " 
and  "  the  life  of  the  body  "  (Haug,  "  Essays," 
1.  s.  c.). 

\i.e.  " our  agricultural  labors "  (ibid.}. 


38 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


water,  were  recognized  as  the  only 
proper  objects  of  human  reverence. 
Personal  gods,  and  together  with  them 
temples,  shrines,  and  images,  were  re- 
jected. The  devotion  of  the  worship- 
ers was  paid,  not  to  any  powers  pre- 
siding over  the  constituent  parts  of 
nature,  but  to  those  constituent  parts 
themselves.  Fire,  as  the  most  subtle 
and  ethereal  principle,  and  again  as 
the  most  powerful  agent,  attracted  es- 
pecial regard ;  and  on  the  fire-altars 
of  the  Magians  the  sacred  flame,  gen- 
erally regarded  as  kindled  from 
heaven,  was  kept  uninterruptedly  burn- 
ing from  year  to  year,  and  from  age 
to  age,  by  bands  of  priests,  whose  spe- 
cial duty  it  was  to  see  that  the  sacred 
spark  was  never  extinguished.  To 
defile  the  altar  by  blowing  the  flame 
with  one's  breath  was  a  capital  of- 
fense, and  to  burn  a  corpse  was  re- 
garded as  equally  odious.  When  vic- 
tims weie  offered,  nothing  but  a  small 
portion  of  the  fat  was  consumed  in 
the  flames.  Next  to  fire,  water  was 
reverenced.  Sacrifice  was  offered  to 
rivers,  lakes,  and  fountains,  the  victim 
being  brought  near  to  them  and  then 
slain,  while  the  utmost  care  was  taken 
that  no  drop  of  their  blood  should 
touch  the  water  and  pollute  it.  No 
refuse  was  allowed  to  be  cast  into  a 
river,  nor  was  it  even  lawful  to  wash 
one's  hands  in  one.  Reverence  for 
earth  was  shown  by  sacrifice  and  by 
abstention  from  the  usual  mode  of 
burying  the  dead.* 

94.  The  Magian  priest-caste  held 
an  exalted  position.  No  worshiper 
could  perform  any  rite  of  the  religion 
unless  by  the  intervention  of  a  priest, 
who  stood  between  him  and  the  Deity 
as  a  mediator.f  The  Magus  prepared 
the  victim  and  slew  it,  chanted  the 
mystic  strain  which  gave  the  sacrifice 
all  its  force,  poured  on  the  ground  the 
propitiatory  libation  of  oil,  milk,  and 
honey,  and  held  the  bundle  of  thin 
tamarisk  twigs,  the  barsom  (baresma) 
of  the  later  Zend  books,  the  employ- 


*  The  chief  authorities  for  this  description 
are  Herodotus  (i.  132),  Strabo  (xv.  3,  §§  13, 
14.)  and  Agathias  (ii.  24). 

t  Herod.  1.  s.  c. ;  Amm.  Marc,  xxiii.  6. 


ment  of  which  was  essential  to  every 
sacrificial  ceremony.*  Claiming  su- 
pernatural powers,  they  explained 
omens,  expounded  dreams,  and  by 
means  of  a  certain  mysterious  manipu- 
lation of  the  barsom,  or  bundle  of  tam- 
arisk twigs,f  arrived  at  a  knowledge 
of  future  events,  which  they  would 
sometimes  condescend  to  communi- 
cate to  the  pious  inquirer. 

95.  With  such   pretensions  it  was 
natural  that  the  caste  should  assume 
a  lofty  air,  a  stately  dress,  and  an  en- 
vironment of  ceremonial  magnificence. 
Clad  in  white  robes,  and  bearing  upon 
their   heads  tall  felt  caps,  with  long 
lappets    at   the  sides,  which  (we  are 
told  ||)  concealed  the  jaw   and   even 
the  lips,  each  with  his  barsom  in  his 
hand,  they  marched  in  procession  to 
the    fire- altars,    and    standing   round 
them  performed  for  an  hour  at  a  time 
their  magical  incantations.    The  cred- 
ulous multitude,  impressed  by  sights 
of  this  kind,  and  imposed  on  by  the 
claims  to  supernatural  powers  which 
the  Magi  put   forward,  paid   them  a 
willing  homage;  the  kings  and  chiefs 
consulted  them ;  and  when  the  Irani- 
ans, pressing  westward,  came  into  con- 
tact  with    the   races    professing   the 
Magian  religion,  they  found  the  Ma- 
gian priest-caste  all-powerful  in  most 
of  the  western  nations. 

96.  Originally  Zoroastrianism    had 
been   intolerant   and   exclusive.     Its 
first  professors  had  looked  with  aver- 
sion   and   contempt  on  the  creed  of 
their  Indian  brethren  ;  they  had  been 
fierce  opponents  of  idolatry,  and  abso- 
lutely hostile  to  every  form  of  religion 
except  that  which  they  had  themselves 
worked   out.     But  with    the  lapse  of 
time  these  feelings  had  grown  weaker. 
The  old  religious  fervor  had  abated. 
An  impressible    and   imitative  spirit 
had  developed  itself.     When  the  Zo- 
roastrians    came    into    contact    with 
Magism,  it  impressed  them  favorably. 
There  was  no  contradiction  between 
its  main  tenets  and  those  of  their  old 
religion ;  they  were   compatible,  and 


*  Strabo,  1.  s.  c. 

t  Dino,  Fr.  8;  Schol.  ad.  Nic.  Ther.  613. 

t  Strabo,  xv.  3,  §  15 ;  Diog.  Laert. "  Proem." 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[115]    37 


might  readily  be  held  together;  and 
the  result  was,  that,  without  giving  up 
any  part  of  their  previous  creed,  the 
Iranians  adopted  and  added  on  to  it 
all  the  principal  points  of  the  Magian 
belief,  and  all  the  more  remarkable  of 
the  Magian  religious  usages.  This 
religious  fusion  seems  first  to  have 
taken  place  in  Media.  The  Magi  be- 
came a  Median  tribe,*  and  were 
adopted  as  the  priest-caste  of  the  Me- 
dian nation.  Elemental  worship,  div- 
ination by  means  of  the  barsom, dream- 
expounding,  incantations  at  the  fire- 
altars,  sacrifices  whereat  a  Magus 
officiated,  were  added  on  to  the  old 
dualism  and  qualified  worship  of  the 
Amesha-Spentas,  of  Mithra,  and  of 
the  other  ahuras ;  and  a  mixed  or 
mongrel  religion  was  thus  formed, 
which  long  struggled  with,  and  ulti- 
mately prevailed  over,  pure  Zoroastri- 
anism.f  The  Persians  after  a  time 
came  into  this  belief,  accepted  the 
Magi 'for  their  priests,  and  attended 
the  ceremonies  at  the  fire-altars. 

97.  The  adoption  of  elemental  wor- 
ship into  the  Iranian  system  produced 
a  curious  practice  with  regard  to  dead 
bodies.  It  became  unlawful  to  burn 
them,  since  that  would  be  a  pollution 
of  fire  ;  or  to  bury  them,  thereby  pol- 
luting earth ;  or  to  throw  them  into  a 
river,  thereby  polluting  water  ;  or  even 
to  place  them  :n  a  sepulchral  cham- 
ber, or  a  sarcophagus,  since  that  would 
cause  a  pollution  of  air.  What,  then, 
was  to  be  done  with  them  ?  In  what 
way  were  they  to  be  disposed  of  ? 
Some  races  of  men,  probably  moved 
by  these  scruples,  adopted  the  prac- 
tice, which  they  regarded  as  emi- 
nently pious,  of  killing  those  who,  they 
suspected,  were  about  to  die,  and 
then  eating  them.t  But  the  Iranians 
had  reached  that  stage  of  civilization 
when  cannibalism  is  held  to  be  dis- 
gusting. Disinclined  to  devour  their 


*  Herod,  i.  101. 

T  See  WestergaarcTs  "  Introduction  to  the 
Zenda  vesta,"  p.  17;  and  compare  the  Au- 
thor's "  Essay  on  the  Religion  of  the  Ancient 
Persians  "  in  his  "  Herodotus,"  vol.  i.  pp.  414- 
419,  ^d  edition. 

]   Herod,  i   216 ;  iii.  99. 


dead  themselves,  they  hit  on  an  expe- 
dient which,  without  requiring  them 
to  do  what  they  30  much  disliked, 
had  the  same  result — transferred,  that 
is,  the  bodies  of  their  departed  friends 
into  those  of  other  living  organisms, 
and  so  avoided  the  pollution  of  any 
element  by  their  decaying  remains. 
Immediately  after  death' they  removed 
the  bodies  to  a  solitary  place,  and 
left  them  to  be  devoured  by  beasts 
and  birds  of  prey,  crows,  ravens,  vult- 
ures, wolves,  jackals,  and  foxes. 
This  was  the  orthodox  practice,*  was 
employed  by  the  Magi  themselves  in 
the  case  of  their  own  dead,  and  was 
earnestly  recommended  to  others  ;t 
but  as  it  was  found  that,  despite  all 
exhortations,  there  were  some  whose 
prejudices  would  not  allow  them  to 
adopt  this  method,  another  had  to  be 
devised  and  allowed,  though  not  rec- 
ommended. This  was  the  coating  of 
the  dead  body  with  wax  previous- 
ly to  its  deposition  in  the  ground,  t 
Direct  contact  between  the  corpse 
and  the  earth  being  in  this  way  pre- 
vented, pollution  was  supposed  to  be 
avoided. 

98.  The  mixed  religion  thus  con- 
stituted, though  less  elevated  and 
less  pure  than  the  original  Zoroas- 
trian  creed,  must  be  pronounced  to 
have  possessed  a  certain  loftiness  and 
picturesqueness  which  suited  it  to 
become  the  religion  of  a  great  and 
splendid  monarchy.  The  mysterious 
fire-alcars  upon  the  mountain-tops, 
with  their  prestige  cf  a  remote  antiq- 
uity— the  ever-burning  flame  believed 
to  have  been  kindled  from  on  high — 
the  worship  in  the  open  air  under  the 
blue  canopy  of  heaven — the  long 
troops  of  Magians  •  in  their  white 
robes,  with  their  strange  caps,  and 
their  mystic  wands — the  frequent 
prayers,  the  abundant  sacrifices,  the 
low  incantations — the  supposed  pro- 
phetic powers  of  the  priest-caste — all 
this  together  constituted  an  imposing 
whole  at  once  to  the  eye  and  to  the 

*  Strabo,  xv.  3,  §  20.     Compare  Herod,  i- 
140. 

1  "  Vendidad,"  Farg.  v.  to  viii. 
|  Herod.  1.  s.  c.;  Strabo,  1.  s.  c. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


mind,  and  was  calculated  to  give  addi- 
tional grandeur  to  the  civil  system 
that  should  be  allied  with  it.  Pure 
Zoroastrianism  was  too  spiritual  to 
coalesce  readily  with  Oriental  luxury 
and  magnificence,  or  to  lend  strength 
to  a  government  based  on  the  princi- 
ples of  Asiatic  despotism.  Magism 
furnished  a  hierarchy  to  support  the 
throne  and  add  splendor  and  dignity 
to  the  court,  while  it  overawed  the 
subject  class  by  its  supposed  posses- 
sion of  supernatural  powers  and  of 
the  right  of  mediating  between  man 
and  God.  It  supplied  a  picturesque 
worship,  which  at  once  gratified  the 
senses  and  excited  the  fancy.  It  gave 
scope  to  man's  passion  for  the  mar- 
velous by  its  incantations,  its  divin- 
ing-rods, its  omen-reading,  and  its 
dream-expounding.  It  gratified  the 
religious  scrupulosity  which  finds  a 
pleasure  in  making  to  itself  difficul- 
ties, by  the  disallowance  of  a  thousand 
natural  acts,  and  the  imposition  of 
numberless  rules  for  external  purity. 
At  the  same  time  it  gave  no  offense 
to  the  anti-idolatrous  spirit  in  which 
the  Iranians  had  always  gloried,  but 
upheld  and  encouraged  the  icono- 
clasm  which  they  had  previously  prac- 
ticed. It  thus  blended  easily  with 
the  previous  creed  of  the  Iranian  peo- 
ple, and  produced  an  amalgam  that 
has  shown  a  surprising  vitality,  hav- 
ing lasted  above  two  thousand  years 
— from  the  time  of  Xerxes,  the  son  of 
Darius  Hystaspis  (B.C.  485-465)  to 
the  present  day. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    EARLY 
KRITIC  INDIANS. 


SANS- 


was  an  extensive  polytheism,  but  a 
polytheism  of  a  very  peculiar  charac- 
ter. There  lay  behind  it,  at  its  first 
formation,  no  conscious  monotheism, 
no  conception  of  a  single  supreme 
power,  from  whom  man  and  nature, 
and  all  the  forces  in  nature,  have  their 
origin.  If  we  hold,  as  I  believe  we 
do  right  to  hold,  that  God  revealed 
Himself  to  the  first  parents  of  the  hu- 
man race  as  a  single  personal  being, 
and  so  that  all  races  of  men  had  at 
the  first  this  idea  as  an  inheritance 
handed  down  to  them  traditionally 
from  their  ancestors,  yet  it  would  seem 
certain  that  in  India,  before  the  relig- 
ion which  we  find  in  the  Vedas  arose, 
this  belief  had  completely  faded  away 
and  disappeared;  the  notion  of 
"  God  "  had  passed  into  the  notion  of 
"  gods  ;  "  a  real  polytheism  universally 
prevailed,  even  with  the  highest  class 
of  intellects ;  *  and  when,  in  the 
course  of  time,  monotheistic  ideas 
showed  themselves,  they  sprang  up  in 
individual  minds  as  the  results  of  in- 
dividual speculation, f  and  were  ut- 
tered tentatively,  not  as  doctrines,  but 
as  hypotheses,  as  timid  "guesses  at 
truth,"  on  the  part  of  those  who  con- 
fessed that  they  knew  little  or  noth- 
ing. 

100.  If  it  be  asked  how  this  forge t- 
fulness  came  about,  how  the  idea  of 
one  God,  once  possessed,  could  ever 
be  lost,  perhaps  we  may  find  an  an- 
swer in  that  fact  to  which  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  race  and  some  of  their 
peculiar  expressions  $  point  back,  that 
for  many  centuries  they  had  been  lo- 
cated in  one  of  the  cruellest  regions 
of  the  earth,  a  region  with  "  ten 
months  of  winter  and  two  months  of 
summer,"  §  where  the  struggle  for  ex- 
istence must  have  been  terrible  in- 


"Le  pantheisme  naturaliste  et  le  polythe- 
isme,  sa  consequence  inevitable,  s'  et'aient 
graduellement  introduits  dans  les  croyances 
des  Aryas." — LENORMANT.  Manuel  d1  Histoire 
Ancienne,  vol.  iii.  p.  309. 

99.  THE  religion  of -the  early  In- 
dians, like  that  of  the  Egyptians,  and 
like  that  of  Assyrians  and  Babylonians, 


*  See  Max  Miiller,  "  Ancient  Sanskrit  Lit- 
erature," pp.  528,  529. 

t  Ibid.  p.  559. 

J  As  the  expression,  "  a  hundred  winters" 
used  for  a  hundred  years.  (See  H.  H.  Wil- 
son's "  Introduction  to  the  Rig-Veda,"  vol.  i. 
p.  xlii.) 

§  See  the  description  of  "  Aryanem  vaejo  "' 
— the  old  home  of  the  Aryans — in  the  First 
Fargard  of  the  "  Vendidad  "  ("  Ancient  Mon- 
archies," vol.  ii.  p.  432). 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


in- 


deed, and  all  their  energies,  all  their 
time,  all  their  thought,  must  have  been 
spent  on  the  satisfaction  of  those  phys- 
ical needs  for  which  provision  must 
be  made  before  man  can  occupy  him- 
self with  the  riddle  of  the  universe. 
At  any  rate,  however  we  may  account 
for  it,  or  whether  we  can  account  for 
it  or  no,  the  fact  remains  ;  somehow 
or  other  the  Sanskritic  Indians  had 
ceased  to  "  retain  God  in  their  knowl- 
edge ;  "  *  they  were  for  a  time  "  with- 
out God  in  the  world,"  they  had  lost 
the  sense  of  His  "  eternal  power  and 
Godhead  ;  "  f  they  were  in  the  condi- 
tion that  men  would  be  in  who  should 
be  veritable  "children  of  the  soil," 
springing  into  life  without  inheritance 
of  ancestral  notions. 

101.  But  there  was  one  thing  which 
they  could  not  be  without.  God  has 
implanted  in  all  men  a  religious  fac- 
ulty, a  religious  instinct,  which  is  an 
essential  portion  of  their  nature  and 
among  the  faculties  which  most  dis- 
tinguish man  from  the  brutes.  No 
sooner  was  the  tension  produced  by 
the  severe  character  of  their  surround- 
ings relaxed — no  sooner  did  the  plains 
of  the  Punjab  receive  the  previous 
dwellers  in  the  Hindu  Kush — than 
this  instinct  asserted  itself,  perceived 
that  there  was  something  divine  in  the 
world,  and  proceeded  to  the  manu- 
facture of  deities.  Nature  seemed 
to  the  Hindoo  not  to  be  one,  but 
many ;  and  all  nature  seemed  to  be 
wonderful,  and,  so,  divine.  The  sky, 
the  air,  the  dawn,  the  sun,  the  earth, 
the  moon,  the  wind,  the  storms,  the 
fire,  the  waters,  the  rivers,  attracted  his 
attention,  charmed  him,  sometimes 
terrified  him,  seemed  to  him  instinct 
with  power  and  life,  became  to  him 
objects  of  admiration  and  then  of 
worship.  At  first,  it  would  appear, 
the  objects  themselves  were  adored  ; 
but  the  objects  received  names ;  the 
names  were,  by  the  laws  of  Indian 
grammar,  masculine  or  feminine ;  and 
the  named  objects  thus  passed  into 
person s,-t  the  nomina  became  numina, 

*  Romans  i.  28.  t  Romans  i.  20. 

\  Max  Miiller,  "  Lectures  on  the  Science  of 
Religion,"  pp.  54-56. 


beings  quite  distinct  from  the  objects 
themselves,  -  presiding  over  them,  di- 
recting them,  ruling  them,  but  having 
a  separate  and  another  kind  of  exist- 


ence. 


102.  And  now  the  polytheism,  al- 
ready  sufficiently  extensive   through 
the  multiplicity  of  things  natural,  took 
a  fresh  start.     The  names,  having  be- 
come persons,  tended  to  float   away 
from  the  objects ;  and  the  objects  re- 
ceived fresh   names,  which  in   their 
turn  were  exalted  into  gods,  and  so 
swelled   the   pantheon.      When   first 
the  idea  of  counting  the  gods   pre- 
sented itself  to  the  mind  of  a  Vedic 
poet,   and  he   subjected  them   to   a 
formal    census,   he    found    them    to 
amount  to  no  more  than  thirty-three.* 
But  in  course  of  time  this  small  band 
swelled  into  a  multitude,  and  Visva- 
mitra,  a   somewhat   late  poet,  states 
the  number  at  3339.! 

103.  One    of    the    features     most 
clearly  pronounced  in  the  Vedic  poly- 
theism is  that  which  has  been  already 
noticed  as  obtaining  to  a  considerable 
extent  both  in  the  Egyptian  and  As- 
syrian religions, t  the   feature  which 
has  been  called  "  Kathenotheism  "  or 
"  Henotheism."  §    A  Vedic  worshiper, 
for  the  most  part,  when  he  turned  his 
regards  toward  any  individual  deity, 
forgot  for  the  time  being  that  there 
was  any  other,  and  addressed  the  im- 
mediate  object   of  his   adoration   in 
terms  of  as  absolute  devotion  as  if  he 
were  the  sole  God  whom  he  recog- 
nized, the  one  and  only  Divine  Being 
in  the  entire  universe.     "  In  the  first 
hymn  of  the  second  Mandala,  the  god 
Agni  is  called  *  the  ruler  of  the  uni- 
verse/ '  the  lord  of  men,'    '  the  wise 
king,  the  father,  the  brother,  the  son, 
the  friend  of  man  ; '  nay,  all  the  pow- 
ers and  names  of  the  other  gods  are 
distinctly  assigned  to  Agni."  ||     Sim- 


*  Rig- Veda,  viii.  30.  (See  Max  Miiller's 
"  Ancient  Sanskrit  Literature,"  p.  £31.) 

t  "  Rig- Veda  Sanhita  "  (translation  of  H. 
H.  Wilson),  vol.  iii.  p.  7. 

J  See  above,  pp.  40  and  56. 

§  Max  Miiller,  "  Chips  from  a  German 
Workshop,"  vol.  i.  p.  28 ;  "  Science  of  Relig- 
ion," p.  141. 

!|"  Chips,"  1.  s.  c. 


40     [IIS] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD 


ilarly,  in  another  hymn,  Varuna  is 
kk  k  the  wise  god,'  the  '  lord  of  all,'  *  the 
lord  of  heaven  and  earth,'  *  the  up- 
holder of  order,'  '  he  who  gives  to  men 
glory.'*  It  is  the  same  with  Indra — 
he  is  '  the  ruler  of  all  that  moves,'  the 
'  mighty  one,'  '  he  to  whom  there  is 
none  like  in  heaven  and  earth : '  "  f 
"the  gods,"  it  is  said,  "do  not  reach 
thee,  Indra,  nor  men  ;  thou  overcom- 
est  all  creatures  in  strength."  The 
best  authority  tells  us  that  "  it  would 
be  easy  to  find,  in  the  numerous  hymns 
of  the  Veda,  passages  in  which  almost 
every  important  deity  is  represented 
as  supreme  and  absolute."  $  At  the 
same  time  there  is  no  rivalry,  no  com- 
parison of  one  god  with  another,  no 
conflict  of  opinion  between  the  vota- 
ries of  different  deities ;  each  is  su- 
preme and  absolute  in  his  turn,  simply 
because  "  all  the  rest  disappear  for  a 
moment  from  the  vision  of  the  poet, 
and  he  only  who  is  to  fulfill  their  de- 
sires stands  in  full  light  before  the 
eyes  of  the  worshipers. "§ 

104.  Among  the  various  deities 
thus,  in  a  certain  sense,  equalized, 
there  are  three  who  may  be  said  to 
occupy,  if  not  the  chief,  at  any  rate 
the  oldest  place,  since  their  names 
have  passed  out  of  the  sphere  of  mere 
appellatives,  and  have  become  proper 
names,  the  designations  of  distinct 
persons.  These  are  Varuna,  Mitra, 
and  Indra — originally,  the  Sky,  the 
Sun,  and  the  Storm  (or,  perhaps,  the 
Day) — but,  in  the  Vedic  hymns,  only 
slightly  connected  with  any  particular 
aspects  of  nature,  and  not  marked  off 
by  any  strong  differences  the  one 
from  the  other.  Indra,  indeed,  is  the 
main  object  of  adoration  ;  more  than 
one-third  of  the  hymns  in  the  earlier 
part  of  the  Rig- Veda  are  addressed  to 
him.)!  He  is  "the  sovereign  of  the 

*"  Ancient  Sanskrit  Literature,"  pp.  536, 
537.  t  Ibid.  p.  546. 

J  "  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop,"  p. 
28.  §  Ibid. 

!|  Forty-five  in  the  first  Astaka,  out  of  121  ; 
39  in  the  second,  out  of  118 ;  48  in  the  third, 
out  of  121 ;  and  46  in  the  fourth,  out  of  140— 
altogether  178  out  of  502.  (See  the  "  Introduc- 
i  ion  "  of  Prof.  H.  H.  Wilson  to  his  "  Trans- 
lation of  the  Rig- Veda  Sanhita.") 


world,"  "  the  all-wise,"  "  the  «bode  of 
truth,"  "  the  lord  of  the  good,"  "  the 
animator  of  all,"  "  the  showerer  of 
benefits,"  "the  fulfiller  of  the  desire 
of  him  who  offers  praise  ;  "  *  and, 
with  more  or  less  of  reference  to  his 
original  character,  "  the  sender  of 
rain,"  "  the  giver  of  food,"  "  the  lord 
of  opulence,"  and  "  the  wielder  of 
the  thunderbolt."  t  Varuna  is  more 
sparingly  addressed;  but,  when  ad- 
dressed, is  put  quite  upon  a  par  with 
Indra,  joined  with  him  in  such  phrases 
as  "sovereign  Indra  and  Varuna," 
"  Indra  and  Varuna,  sovereign  rulers," 
"divine  Indra  and  Varuna,"  "mighty 
Indra  and  Varuna,"  \  etc.,  and  entreat- 
ed to  afford  the  worshiper,  equally  with 
Indra,  protection,  long  life,  riches, 
sons  and  grandsons,  happiness.  Mi- 
tra is  the  usual  companion  of  Varuna, 
sharing  with  him  in  the  fifth  Mandala 
eleven  consecutive  hymns,§  and  else- 
where joined  with  him  frequently ;  jj 
they  are  "  observers  of  truth,"  "  im- 
perial rulers  of  the  world,"  "  lords  of 
heaven  and  truth,"  "  protectors  of  the 
universe,"  "  mighty  deities,"  "  far-see- 
ing," "  excelling  in  radiance  ; "  *R  they 
!  "  uphold  the  three  realms  of  light," 
i  "  scatter  foes,"  "  guide  men  in  the 
i  right  "way,"  "  send  rain  from  heaven," 
|  "  grant  men  their  desires,"  **  "  pro- 
cure for  them  exceeding  and  perfect 
felicity."  ft  They  ride  together  in 
one  chariot,  which  "  shines  in  the 
firmament  like  lightning ;  "  $$  they 
sustain  the  sun  in  his  course,  and  con- 
jointly cause  the  rain  to  fall ;  they  are 
"  possessed  of  irresistible  strength,"§$ 
and  "  uphold  the  celestial  and  terres- 


Rig-Veda,  vol. 


36,  145,  283;  vol 


•  PP- 
Hi.  pp.  157,  159,  and  166. 

t  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  283;  vol.  in.  pp.  157  and 
1 60. 

\  "  Rig- Veda,"  vol.  i.  p.    40 ;  vol.  iii.  pp. 
63,  201,  203,  etc. 

§  Ibid.  vol.  iii.  pp.  347~357- 

||  As  in  vol.  i.  pp.  7,  117,  and  230;  vol.  ii. 
PP.  3-6,  53-55*59,  etc. 

If  Wilsons       Introduction,     vol.    in.    pp. 

349~354- 
**  Wilson's    "  Introduction,"  vol.  iii    pp. 

354-356- 

^  Ibid.  p.  349. 
\\  Ibid.  p.  348. 
§§  Ibid.  pp.  353,  354. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[119]    41 


trial  worlds."*  It  can  scarcely  be 
doubted  that  Mitra  was  once  the 
sun,  as  Mithra  always  was  in  Per- 
sia ;f  but  in  the  hymns  of  the  Rig- 
Veda  he  has  passed  out  of  that  subor- 
dinate position,  and  has  become  a  god 
who  sustains  the  sun,  and  who  has  a 
general  power  over  the  elements. 
His  place  as  the  actual  sun-god  has 
been  taken  by  another  and  distinct 
deity,  of  whom  more  will  be  said  pres- 
ently. 

105.  Next  to  these  three  gods, 
whose  character  is  rather  general 
than  special,  must  be  placed  Agni — 
the  Latin  ignis — who  is  distinctly  the 
god  of  fire.  Fire  presented  itself  to 
the  early  Indians  under  a  twofold  as- 
pect ;  $  first,  as  it  exists  on  earth,  on 
the  hearth,  on  the  altar,  and  in  the 
conflagration  ;  secondly,  as  it  exists  in 
the  sky,  in  the  shape  of  lightning,  me- 
teors, stars,  comets,  and  light  gener- 
ally, so  far  as  that  is  independent  of 
the  sun.  The  earthly  aspect  of  fire  is 
most  dwelt  upon.  The  Vedic  poet 
sees  it  leaping  forth  from  darkness  on 
the  rapid  friction  of  two  sticks  in  the 
hands  of  a  strong  man.  It  is  greedy 
for  food  as  it  steps  forth  out  of  its 
prison,  it  snorts  like  a  horse  as  with 
loud  crackle  it  seizes  and  spreads 
among  the  fuel.  Then  for  a  moment 
its  path  is  darkened  by  great  folds  of 
smoke  ;  but  it  overcomes,  it  triumphs, 
and  mounts  up  in  a  brilliant  column 
of  pure  clear  flame  into  the  sky.§  As 
culinary  fire,  Agni  is  the  supporter  of 
life,  the  giver  of  strength  and  vigor, 
the  imparter  of  a  pleasant  flavor  to 
foocl,|i  the  diffuser  of  happiness  in  a 
dwelling.  As  a  sacrificial  fire,  he  is 
the  messenger  between  the  other  gods 
and  man  ;  the  interpreter  to  the  other 


.*  Ibid.  p.  356. 

t  See  the  Author's  "  Ancient  Monarch- 
ies," vol.  ii.  p.  328;  vol.  iii.  pp.  348  and 

J  Wilson  says  "  a  three-fold  aspect  "  ("  In- 
troduction to  Rig- Veda,"  vol.  i.  p.  xxvii.),  dis- 
tinguishing between  the  region  of  the  air  and 
that  of  the  sky;  but  the  Vedic  poets  scarcely 
make  this  distinction. 

§  See  Max  Miilier,  "Ancient  Sanskrit 
Literature,"  p.  547,  note. 

!i  Rig- Veda,  vol.  iii.  pp.  184,  247,  etc. 


gods  of  human  wants;  the  all-wise, 
who  knows  every  thought  of  the  wor- 
shiper; the  bestOA'er  of  all  blessings 
on  men,  since  it  is  by  his  intervention 
alone  that  their  offerings  are  con- 
veyed, and  their  wishes  made  known 
to  any  deity.  As  conflagration,  Agni 
is  "  the  consumer  of  forests,  the  dark- 
pathed,  the  bright-shining."  *  "  White- 
hued,  vociferous,  abiding  in  the  firm- 
ament with  the  imperishable  resound- 
ing winds,  the  youngest  of  the  gods, 
Agni,  purifying  and  most  vast,  pro- 
ceeds, feeding  upon  numerous  and 
substantial  forests.  His  bright  flames, 
fanned  by  the  wind,  spread  wide  in 
every  direction,  consuming  abundant 
fuel;  divine,  fresh-rising,  they  play 
upon  the  woods,  enveloping  them  in 
luster."f  Occasionally,  instead  of 
consuming  forests,  he  devours  cities 
with  their  inhabitants.  When  the 
Aryan  Indians  prevail  over  their  en- 
emies and  give  their  dwellings  to  the 
flames,  it  is  Agni  who  "  destroys  the 
ancient  towns  of  the  dispersed,":}:  and 
"  consumes  victorious  all  the  cities  of 
the  foe  and  their  precious  things."§ 
Hence,  he  is  constantly  invoked 
against  enemies,  and  exhorted  to 
overthrow  them,  to  give  their  cities  to 
destruction,  to  "  burn  them  down  like 
pieces  of  dry  timber,"  ||  to  chastise 
them  and  "  consume  them  entirely." 
In  his  celestial  character,  Agni,  on 
the  other  hand,  is,  comparatively 
speaking,  but  rarely  recognized. 
Still,  his  frequent  association  with  In- 
dra  IT  ponts  to  this  aspect  of  him. 
Both  he  and  Indra  are  "  wielders  of 
thet  hunderbolt ;  "  **  they  occupy  a 
common  car ;  ft  they  are  joint  "  slay- 
ers of  Vitra ;  "  $$  and  Agni  is  described 
in  one  place  as  "  the  agitator  of  the 
clouds  when  the  rain  is  poured  forth," 


*    Rig-Veda,  p.  391. 

t  Ibid.  vol.  iii.  Compare  pp.  136,  254, 
385,  etc. 

J  Ibid.  p.  388. 

§  Ibid.  p.  1 6. 

||  Ibid.  p.  126. 

IT  Mandala  i.  21,  108 ;  Mandala  iii.  12; 
Mandala  v.  14 ;  Mandala  vi.  59 ;  etc. 

**  Rig- Veda,  vol.  iii.  p.  500. 

ft  Ibid.  p.  501. 

Jt  Ibid.  vol.  iii.  pp.  in,  503,  etc. 


42     [120] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD 


he  who,  "  moving  with  the  swiftness 
of  the  wind,  shines  with  a  pure  radi- 
ance ; "  whose  "  falling  rays,  accom- 
panied by  the  moving  storms,  strike 
against  the  cloud,"  which  thereupon 
"  roars,"  after  which  "  the  shower 
comes  with  delightful  and  smiling 
drops,  the  rain  descends,  the  clouds 
thunder."  * 

1 06.  After  Agni  we  may  place  in 
a  single  group,  Dyaus,  "  the  heaven  ;  " 
Surya,  or   Savitri,  "  the  sun  ;  "  Soma, 
"  the   moon  ;  "  Ushas,  "  the   dawn  ;  " 
Prithivi,    "the    earth;"   Vayu,    "the 
wind  ;  "    Ap,    "  the    waters  ;  "    Nadi, 
"  the  rivers  ;  "  and   the  Maruts,  "  the 
storms."     These  are  all  nature-gods  of 
a  very  plain  and  simple  kind,  corre- 
sponding to  the  Greek   Uranus,  Hee- 
lios,   Selene,  Eos,   Ge,  or  Gaia,  etc., 
and   to   the   Roman   Ccelus,  Apollo, 
Luna,    Aurora,   Tellus,    ^Eolus,   etc. 
Of  all  these  the  Maruts  are  the  most 
favorite  objects   of    worship,   having 
twenty-four  hymns  devoted   to   them 
in  the  first  six  Mandalas  of  the  Rig- 
Veda.f     Next  to  these  may  be  placed 
Ushas,  who  has  eleven  hymns  ;  then 
Dyaus  and  Prithivi,  who  share  seven 
hymns ;  after   these    Surya,  who   has 
six ;  then  Vayu,  who   has   two ;  then 
Soma,  who  has  one :  and   lastly,  Ap 
and  Nadi,  who  are  not  worshiped  sep- 
arately at   all.      Ushas,  the   dawn,  is 
perhaps  the  most  beautiful  creation  of 
the  Vedic  bards.     "  She  is  the  friend 
of  men  ;  she  smiles  like  a  young  Wife  ; 
she  is  the  daughter  of  the  sky.     She 
goes   to  every  house ;  she  thinks   of 
the  dwellings  of  men  ;  she   does   not 
despise  the  small   or  the   great ;  she 
brings    wealth;    she   is   always    the 
same,   immortal,  divine  ;  age    cannot 
touch   her ;  she    is   the  young    god- 
dess, but  she  makes  men  grow  old." 
Born  again  and  again,  and  with  bright 
unchanging  hues,  she   dissipates   the 
accumulated     glooms,     anoints     her 
beauty  as    the     priests     anoint    the 


*  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  202. 

t  See  Wilson's  "  Introductions "  to  the 
several  volumes  of  the  Rig-Veda  Sanhita, 
vol.  i.  p.  15  ;  vol.  iii.  p.  7. 

J  Max  Mtiller,  "  Ancient  Sanskrit  Litera 
ture,"  p.  551. 


sacrificial  food  in  sacrifices,  bright- 
shining  she  smiles,  like  a  flatterer, 
to  obtain  favor,  then  lights  up  the 
world,  spreads,  expanding  west-ward 
with  her  radiance,  awakes  men  to 
consciousness,  calls  forth  the  pleas- 
ant sounds  of  bird  and  beast,  arouses 
all  things  that  have  life  to  their 
several  labors.*  Sometimes  a  mere 
natural  appearance,  more  often  a 
manifest  goddess,  she  comes  before 
men  day  after  day  with  ever  young 
and  fresh  beauty,  challenging  their 
admiration,  almost  forcing  them  to 
worship  her.  The  lazy  inhabitants  of 
so-called  civilized  lands,  who  rarely 
ieave  their  beds  till  the  sun  has  been 
up  for  hours,  can  scarcely  understand 
the  sentiments  with  which  a  simple 
race,  that  went  to  rest  with  the  even- 
ing twilight,  awaited  each  morning 
the  coming  of  the  rosy-fingered  dawn, 
or  the  ecstatic  joy  with  which  they 
saw  the  darkness  in  the  eastern  sky- 
fade  and  lift  before  the  soft  approach 
of  something  tenderer  and  lovelier 
than  day. 

107.  Surya,  "the  sun,"  does  not 
play  a  prominent  part  in  the  Vedic 
poems. f  Out  of  the  five  hundred 
hymns  in  Wilson's  collection,  only  six 
are  devoted  to  him  exclusively.  $ 
His  presentation  is  nearly  that  of 
Heelios  in  the  Greek,  and  Phoebus 
Apollo  in  the  Roman  mythology. 
Brilliant,  many-rayed,  adorable,  he 
yokes  each  morning  his  two,§  or 
seven,  ||  swift  coursers  to  his  car, 
and  mounts  up  the  steep  incline  of 
heaven,  following  Ushas,  as  a  youth 
pursues  a  maiden,  and  destroying 
her. IT  Journeying  onward  at  incredi- 


*  Rig- Veda,  vol.  i.  pp.  236-238  and  298, 
299. 

t  Wilson,  "  Introduction  to  Rig- Veda," 
vol.  i.  p.  xxxii. 

J  Mandala  i.  Suktas  50  and  115;  Man- 
dala  ii.  Sukta38  ;  and  Mandala  v.  Suktas  Si 
and  82.  Surya  has  also  a  part  in  Mandala  i. 
Sukta  35  ;  Mandala  v.  Suktas  40  and  45  ;  and 
Mandala  vi.  Sukta  50. 

§  Rig- Veda,  vol.  i.  p.  98. 

II  H>id.  p.  133- 

IF  Ibid.  p.  304.  Compare  Max  Miiller's 
"  Ancient  Sanskrit  Literature,"  pp.  529,  530, 
where  the  following  comment  of  an  Indian 
critic  is  quoted : — "  It  is  fabled  that  Praja- 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[121] 


ble  speed  *  between  the  two  regions 
of  heaven  and  earth,  he  pours  down 
his  quickening,  life-bestowing,  purify- 
ing rays  on  all,  dispels  diseases, t 
gives  fertility,  and  multiplies  wealth. i 
Having  attained  the  summit  of  .the 
sky,  he  commences  his  descent,  and 
traveling  on  a  downward  path,  con- 
ducts his  car  with  safety  to  the  far 
limits  of  the  west,  carrying  off  with 
him  all  the  diffused  rays  of  light,§ 
and  disappearing,  no  one  knows 
whither.  || 

108.  Vayu,  the  "wind,"  generally 
coupled  with  Indra  as  a  god  of  heaven, 
has  only  two  whole  hymns,H  and  parts 
of  five  others,  devoted  to  him  in 
Wilson's  collection.  What  is  chiefly 
celebrated  is  his  swiftness  ;  and  in  this 
connection  he  has  sometimes  ninety- 
nine,  sometimes  a  hundred,**  some- 
times a  thousand  steeds,tt  or  even  a 
thousand  chariots,$$  assigned  to  him. 
The  color  of  his  horses  is  red  or 
purple.§§  He  is  "  swift  as  thought," 
he  has  "  a  thousand  eyes,"  and  is  "  the 
protector  of  pious  acts."  ||  ||  As  one  of 
the  gods  who  "  sends  rain,"  1T1F  he  is 
invoked  frequently  by  the  inhabitants 
of  a  country  where  want  of  rain  is 
equivalent  to  a  famine.  Dyaus  and 
Prithivi,  "  heaven  "  and  "  earth,"  are 
mostly  coupled  together,  and  ad- 
dressed in  the  same  hymns ;  but,  be- 


pati,  the  Lord  of  Creation,  did  violence  to 
his  daughter.  But  what  does  it  mean  ?  Pra- 
japati,  the  Lord  of  Creation,  is  a  name  of  the 
sun  ;  and  he  is  called  so  because  he  protects 
all  creatures.  His  daughter,  Ushas,  is  the 
Dawn.  And  when  it  is  said  that  he  was  in 
love  with  her,  this  only  means  that,  at  sun- 
rise, the  sun  runs  after  the  dawn,  the  dawn 
being  at  the  same  time  called  the  daughter 
of  the  sun,  because  she  rises  when  he  ap- 
proaches." 

*  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  132. 

t  Ibid.  vol.  i.  pp.  99  and  134. 

i  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  pp.  307,  309,  etc. 

§  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  305. 

||  Ibid.  p.  99. 

I  Mandala  ii.  Sukta  134;  and  Mandala  vi. 
Sukta  48. 

**  Rig- Veda,  vol.  iii.  p.  211. 
tt  Ibid.  pp.  210  and  212.    Compare  vol.  ii. 
p.  49. 

ii  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  313. 

§§  Ibid.  p.  46. 

II II  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  55. 

II  Ibid.  vol.  iii.    p.  487. 


sides  the  joint  addresses,  Prithivi  is 
sometimes  the  sole  subject  of  a  sacred 
poem.*  Dyaus  has  occasionally  the 
epithet  of  pitar,  or  "father,"  f  and 
thus,  so  far  as  the  name  goes,  undoubt- 
edly corresponds  with  the  Jupiter  or 
Diespiter  of  the  Romans.  But  he  is 
certainly  not  in  the  same  way  the 
"  father,"  or  creator,  of  the  other  gods. 
Rather,  some  individual  poets,  in  their 
craving  after  divine  sympathy  and 
communion,  have  ventured  to  bestow 
on  him  the  name  of  "  father  "  excep- 
tionally, not  with  any  intention  of 
making  him  the  head  of  the  Pantheon, 
but  as  claiming  to  themselves  a  share 
in  the  Divine  nature,  and  expressing 
the  same  feeling  as  the  Greek  poet 
when  he  said,  '*  For  we  are  also  his 
offspring."  \ 

109.  It  is  unnecessary  to  detain  the 
reader  with  a  complete  account  of  the 
rest  of  the  thirty-three  gods.  Some, 
as  Aditi,  Pushan,  Brahmaspati,  Brih- 
aspati,  Panjaniya,  seem  to  be  mere 
duplicate  or  triplicate  names  of  deities 
already  mentioned.  Others,  as  the 
Aswins,  Aryaman,  Rudra,  Vishnu, 
Yama,  belong  to  a  lower  grade,  being 
rather  demigods  or  heroes  than  actual 
deities.  Others,  again,  are  indistinct, 
and  of  little  importance,  as  Saraswati, 
Bhaga,  Twashtri,  Parvata,  Hotra,  Bha- 
rati,  Sadi,  Varutri,  and  Dhishana. 

no  Special  attention  must,  however, 
be  called  to  Soma.  By  a  principle  of 
combination  which  is  quite  inscrutable, 
Soma  represents  at  once  the  moon  or 
moon-god,  and  the  genius  presiding 
over  a  certain  plant.  The  assignment 
of  a  sacred  character  to  the  Soma,  or 
Homa  plant  (Sarcostema  viminalis)^ 
was  common  to  the  Indie  with  the 
Iranian  religion,  though  the  use  made 
of  it  in  the  two  worships  was  different. 
According  to  the  ordinary  spirit  of 
the  Indie  religion,  a  deity  was  required 
to  preside  over,  or  personify,  this  im- 


*  Mandala  v.  Sukta  83. 

t  Max  Miiller,  "  Science  of  Religion,"  p. 
172. 

i  Acts  xvii.  28.  St.  Paul,  as  is  well  known, 
quoted  Aratus. 

§  H.  H.  Wilson,  in  notes  to  the  Rig- Veda, 
vol.  i.  p.  6,  note  a. 


44     [122] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


portant  part  of  nature,  and  the  god 
chosen  was  the  same  that  had  the 
moon  under  his  protection.  Hence 
arises,  in  the  hymns  to  Soma,  a  curi- 
ous complication  ;  and  it  is  often  diffi- 
cult to  determine  which  view  of  the 
god  is  present  to  the  mind  of  the  poet. 
The  notion  of  the  plant  is  the  predom- 
inant one ;  but  intermixed  with  it  in 
the  strangest  way  come  touches  which 
can  only  be  explained  by  referring 
them  to  Soma's  lunar  character.* 

in.  The  worship  of  their  gods  by 
the  Indians  was  of  a  very  simple  kind, 
consisting  of  prayer,  praise,  and  offer- 
ings. It  was  wholly  domestic,  that  is 
to  say,  there  were  no  temples  or  gen- 
eral places  of  assembly ;  but  each 
man  in  his  dwelling-house,  in  a  cham- 
ber devoted  to  religious  uses,  per- 
formed, or  rather  had  performed  for 
him,  the  sacred  rites  which  he  pre- 
ferred, and  on  which  he  placed  his 
dependence  for  material  and  perhaps 
for  spiritual  blessings.  An  order  of 
/priests  existed,  by  whom  alone  could 
religious  services  be  conducted  ;  and 
of  these  a  goodly  array  officiated  on 
-all  occasions,  the  number  being  some- 
times seven,  at  other  times  as  many 
as  sixteen.f  It  was  not  necessary  for 
the  worshiper  to  appear  personally, 
or  to  take  any  part  in  the  ceremony ; 
enough  was  done  if  he  provided  the 
chamber,  the  altar  and  the  offerings. 
The  chamber  had  to  be  spread  with 
the  Kusa,  or  sacred  rushes ;  the  fire 
had  to  be  lighted  upon  the  altar ;  $  and 
then  the  worship  commenced.  Priests 
chanted  in  turn  the  verses  of  the 
Mantras  or  sacred  hymns,  which  com- 
bined prayer  wjth  praise,  and  invited 
the  presence  of -the  deities.  At  the 
proper  moment,  when  by  certain  mystic 
signs  the  priests  knew  the  god  or  gods 


*  H.  H.  Wilson,  in  notes  to  the  Rig- Veda, 
vol.  i.  p.  235,  note  a. 

t  See  Wilson's  "  Introduction"  to  vol.  i.  p. 
:xxiv. 

\  It  has  been  questioned  whether  the  fire 
was  not  kept  burning  continually,  as  in  the 
Persian  Fire  Temples  (Wilson,  "  Introduc- 
tion "to  vol.  i.  of  Rig- Veda,  p.  xxiii.) ;  but 
the  constant  allusions  to  the  production  of 
fire  by  friction  make  it  clear  that,  ordinarily, 
2,  fresh  fire  was  kindled. 


invoked  to  have  arrived,*  the  offer- 
ings were  presented,  the  divine  favor 
secured,  the  prayers  recited,  and  the 
ceremony  brought  to  a  close  by  some 
participation  of  the  ministering  priests 
in  the  offerings. 

112.  The  praises,  with  which  the 
hymns  generally  commence,  describe 
the  power,  the  wisdom,  the  grandeur, 
the  marvelousness,  the  generosity, 
the  goodness  of  the  deity  addressed, 
adding  in  some  instances  encomiums 
on  his  -personal  beauty  f  and  the 
splendor  of  his  dress  and  decora- 
tions.:!: Occasionally,  his  great  actions 
are  described,  either  in  general  terms, 
or  with  special  reference  to  certain 
exploits  ascribed  to  him  in  the  mythol- 
ogy.§  When  he  has  been  thus  ren- 
dered favorable,  and  the  offerings  have 
been  made  in  the  customary  way,  the 
character  of  the  hymn  changes  from 
praise  to  prayer,  and  the  god  is  im- 
plored to  bestow  blessings  on  the 
person  who  has  instituted  the  cere- 
mony, and  sometimes,  but  not  so 
commonly,  on  the  author  or  reciter  of 
the  prayer.  It  is  noticeable  that  the 
blessings  prayed  for  are,  predomi- 
nantly, of  a  temporal  and  personal  de- 
scription. ||  The  worshiper  asks  for 
food,  life,  strength,  health,  posterity; 
for  wealth,  especially  in  cattle,  horses, 
and  cows  ;  for  happiness  ;  for  protec- 
tion against  enemies,  for  victory  over 
them,  and  sometimes  tor  iheir  de- 
struction, particularly  where  they  are 
represented  as  heretics.  Protection 
against  evil  spirits  is  also  occasionally 
requested.  There  is,  comparatively 
speaking,  little  demand  for  moral 
benefits,  for  discernment,  or  improve- 
ment of  character,  or  forgiveness  of 
sin,  or  repentance,  or  peace  of  mind, 


*  Haug,  "  Essays  on  the  Sacred  Language, 
etc.,  of  the  Parsees,"  p.  248. 

t  Wilson,  "  Introduction,"  vol.  i.  p.  xxiv. 
See  also  Mandala  i.  Sukta  9,  §  3  ;  Sukta  42, 
§  10 ;  etc. 

J  Rig- Veda.  vol.  i.  p.  223. 

§  This  is  especially  the  case  in  hymns  ad- 
dressed to  Indra  (Rig- Veda,  vol.  i.  pp.  85-93, 
I36~I39i  etc.). 

||  Wilson,  "  Introduction"  to  vol.  i.  of  Rig- 
Veda,  p.  xxv. ;  Max  Miiller,  "  Chips  from  a 
German  Workshop,"  vol.  i.  p.  27. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[123]     4T, 


or  sticiigth  to  resist  temptation.  The 
sense  of  guilt  is  slight.*  It  is  only 
"  in  some  few  instances  that  hatred  of 
untruth  and  abhorrence  of  sin  are 
expressed,  and  a  hope  uttered  that 
the  latter  may  be  repented  of  or  ex- 
piated." t  Still  such  expressions  do 
occur.  They  are  not  wholly  wanting, 
as  they  are  in  the  utterances  of  the 
ancient  Egyptians.  "  Deliver  us  this 
day,  O  gods,  from  heinous  sin,"  is  the 
concluding  petition  of  one  Sukta.$ 
•*  May  our  sin  be  repented  of,"  is  the 
burden  of  another.§  "Absolve  us 
from  the  sins  of  our  fathers,  and  from 
those  which  we  have  committed  with 
our  own  bodies,"  is  the  prayer  of  a 
third.  ||  "  Varuna  is  merciful,  even  to 
him  who  has  committed  sin,"  is  the 
declaration  of  a  fourth. If  Now  and 
then  we  even  seem  to  have  before  us 
a  broken-hearted  penitent,  one  who 
truly  feels,  like  David  or  the  Publican, 
the  depth  to  which  he  has  fallen,  and 
who,  "  out  of  the  depths,"  **  cries  to 
God  for  forgiveness.  "  Let  me  not 
yet,  O  Varuna,  enter  into  the  house  of 
clay,"  i.  e.,  the  grave,  says  a  Veclic 
worshiper  ;  ft  "  have  mercy,  almighty, 
have  mercy.  If  I  go  along  trembling, 
like  a  cloud  driven  by  the  wind,  have 
mercy,  almighty,  have  mercy.  Through 
want  of  strength,  thou  strong  and 
bright  god,  have  I  gone  wrong;  have 
mercy,  almighty,  have  mercy.  Thirst 
caine  upon  the  worshiper  though  he 
stood  in  the  midst  of  the  waters  ;  have 
mercy,  almighty,  have  mercy.  When- 
ever we  men,  Varuna,  commit  an  of- 
fense before  the  heavenly  host,  when- 
ever we  break  the  law  through 


*  Wilson,  1.  s.  c.  Max  Miiller  says,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  "  the  consciousness  of  sin  is 
a  prominent,  feature  in  the  religion  of  the 
Veda"  ("  Chips,"  vol.  i.  p.  41).  He  means 
probably,  a  noticeable  feature,  not  prominen 
in  the  sense  of  its  occurring  frequently. 

t  These  are  Prof.  Wilson's  words ;  anc 
they  are  quite  borne  out  by  the  text  of  th 
Rig-Veda. 

\  Manclala  i.  Sukta  115,  §  6. 

§  Mandala  i.  Sukta  97. 

H  Mandala  vii.  Sukta  86,  §  5. 

Tf  Mandala  vii.  Sukta  87,  §  7. 

**  Psa.  cxxx.  i. 

tt  Max  Miiller,  "  Ancient  Sanskrit  Litera 
ture,"  p.  540. 


houghtlessness ;      have    mercy,     al- 
mighty, have  mercy." 

113.  The   offerings   wherewith  the 
gods  were  propitiated  were  either  vic- 
ims  or    libations.     Victims    in    the 
early  times  appear  to  have  been  but 
arely  sacrificed  ;  and  the  only  animals 
employed  seem  to  have  been  the  horse 
md   the   goat.*     Libations    were   of 
hree  kinds ;  ghee,  or  clarified  butter,. 
ioney,t  and  the  expressed   and  fer- 
mented juice  of  the  soma  plant.     The 
%hee  and  honey  were  poured  upon  the 
acrificial  fire  ;  the  soma  juice  was  pre- 
sented in  ladles  \  to  the  deities   in- 
voked, part  sprinkled  on  the  fire,  part 
on  the  'Kusa,  or  sacred  grass  strewed 
upon  the   floor,  and   the   rest  in   all 
cases   drunk  by  those  who  had  con- 
ducted the  ceremony. §     It  is  thought 
by  some  modern  critics  that  the  liquor 
offered  to  the  gods  was  believed  to  in- 
toxicate  them,  and   that   the   priests 
took  care  to  intoxicate  themselves  with 
the  remainder; ||  but  there  is  scarcely 
sufficient  evidence  for  these  charges. 
No   doubt,  the   origin   of   the    Soma 
ceremony  must  be  referred  to  the  ex- 
hilarating properties  of  the  fermented 
juice,  and  to  the  delight  and  astonish- 
ment which  the  discovery  of  them  ex- 
cited in  simple  minds.lT     But  exhilara- 
tion is  a   very   different   thing  from 
drunkenness ;  and,  though   Orientals 
do  not  often  draw  the  distinction,  we 
are  scarcely  justified   in   concluding, 
without    better    evidence    than    any 
which  has  been  adduced  as  yet,  that 
the  Soma  ceremony  of   the   Hindoos 
was  in  the  early  ages  a  mere  Baccha- 
nalian orgy,  in  which  the  worshipers 
intoxicated   themselves   in    honor   of 
approving  deities.     Exhilaration  will 
sufficiently  explain  all  that  is  said  of 
the  Soma'in  the  Rig- Veda ;  and  it  is 


*  On  the  sacrifice  of  these,  see  Rig- Veda, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  112-125. 

t  Honey  is  not  common.  On  its  use,  see 
Max  Miilfer,  "  Ancient  Sanskrit  Literature," 
pp.  535  and  537. 

t  Rig- Veda,  Mandala  i.  Sukta  116,  §  24. 

§  Wilson,  "  Introduction"  to  vol.  i.  of  Rig- 
Veda,  p.  xxiii. 

||  Haug  ?  "  Essays  on  the  Sacred  Lan- 
guage, etc.,  of  the  Parsees,"  pp.  247,  248. 

T  Wilson,  "  Introduction,"  p.  xxxvii. 


40     [124] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


charitable  to  suppose  that  nothing 
more  was  aimed  at  in  the  Soma  cere- 
mony. 

114.  The  offerings  of  praise  and 
sacrifice,  and  especially  the  offering 
of  the  soma  juice,  were  considered  not 
merely  to  please  the  god,  who  was  the 
object  of  them,  but  to  lay  him  under 
a  binding  obligation,  and  almost  to 
compel  him  to  grant  the  requests  of 
the  worshiper.  "  The  mortal  who  is 
strenuous  in  worship,"  it  is  said,*  "  ac- 
quires an  authority  "  over  the  object 
of  his  religious  regards — an  authority 
which  is  so  complete  that  he  may  even 
sell  the  god's  favor  to  another  person, 
in  order  to  enable  him  to  attain  the 
object  of  his  desires.  "Who  buys 
tliis— -my  Indra,"  says  Vamadeva,  a 
Vedic  poet,t  "  with  ten  milch  kine  ? 
When  he  shall  have  slain  his  foes, 
then  let  the  purchaser  give  him  back 
to  me  again  ;  "  which  the  commenta- 
tor explains  as  follows  :J  "Vamadeva, 
having  by  muck  praise  got  Indra  into 
his  possession  or  subjugation,  proposes 
to  make  a  bargain  when  about  to  dis- 
pose of  him  ;  "  and  so  he  offers  for  ten 
milch  kine  to  hand  him  over  tempo- 
rarily, apparently  to  any  person  who 
will  pay  the  price,  with  the  proviso 
that  when  Indra  has  subdued  the  per- 
son's foes,  he  is  to  be  returned  to  the 
vendor ! 

115.  The  subject  of  a  future  life 
seems  scarcely  to  have  presented  it- 
self with  any  distinctness  to  the 
thoughts  of  the  early  Indians.  There 
is  not  the  slightest  appearance  in  the 
Rig- Veda  of  a  belief  in  metempsy- 
chosis, or  the  transmigration  of  human 
souls  after  death  into  the  bodies  of 
animals.§  The  phenomena  of  the 
present  world,  what  they  see  and  hear 
and  feel  in  it,  in  the  rushing  of  the 
wind,  the  howling  of  the  storm,  the 
flashing  of  the  lightning  from  cloud 
to  cloud,  the  splash  of  the  rain,  the 
roar  of  the  swollen  rivers,  the  quick 
changes  from  day  to  night,  and  from 


night  to  day,  from  storm  to  calm  and 
from  calm  to  storm,  from  lurid  gloom 
to  sunshine  and  from  sunshine  to  lurid 
gloom  again ;  the  interesting  business 
of  life,  the  kindling  of  fire,  the  light- 
ing up  of  the  hearth  ;  the  performance 
of   sacrifice ;   the   work,   agricultural, 
pastoral,  or  other,  to  be  done  during 
the  day,  the  storing  up  of  food,  the  ac- 
quirement of  riches,  the   training  of 
children ;  war,  the  attack  of  foes,  the 
crash  of  arms,  the  flight,  the  pursuit, 
the  burning  of  towns,  the  carrying  off 
of    booty — these     things,    and    such 
things  as  these,  so  occupy  and  fill  the 
minds  of  this  primitive  race,  that  they 
have  in  general   no   room   for  other 
speculations,  no  time  or  thought  to  de- 
vote to  them.     It  is  only  occasionally, 
in  rare  instances,  that  to  this  or  that 
poet  the  idea  seems  to  have  occurred, 
"  Is  this  world  the  whole,  or  is  there 
a  hereafter?     Are  there   such  things 
as  happiness  and  misery  beyond  the 
grave  ? "     Still,  the  Rig-Veda  is  not  al- 
together  without   expressions    which 
seem  to  indicate  a  hope  of  immortality 
and  of  future  happiness  to  be  enjoyed 
by  the  good,  nor  entirely   devoid  of 
phrases  which  may  allude  to  a  place 
of  future  punishment  for  the  wicked. 
"  He  who  gives  alms,'*  says  one  poet,* 
"  goes  to  the  highest  place  in  heaven  ; 
he  goes  to  the  gods."     "  Thou,  Agni, 
hast   announced    heaven   to   Manu," 
says   another;  which  is  explained  to 
mean,  that  Agni   revealed   to  Manu 
the  fact,  that  heaven  is  to  be  gained  by 
pious   works.t     "  Pious    sacriricers," 
proclaims  a  third, %  "  enjoy  a  residence 
in  the  heaven  of  Indra ;  pious  sacrific- 
ers  dwell  in  the  presence  of  the  gods." 
Conversely,    it   is   said   that   "  Indra 
casts  into  the  pit  those  who  offer  no 
sacrifice,"  §  and  that  "  the  wicked,  who 
are  false  in  thought  and  false  in  speech, 
are  born  for  the  deep  abyss  of  hell."|j 
In   the  following  hymn   there   is,  at 


#Mandala  iv.  Sukta  15,  §  5. 
t  Ibid.  iv.  Sukta  24,  §  10. 
|  Wilson,  Rig- Veda,  vol.  iii.  p.  170,  note  2. 
§  Max    Miiller,    "  Chips   from    a    German 
Workshop,"  vol.  i.  p.  45. 


*Mandala  i.  Sukta  125,  §  5. 

t  Wilson,  "  Rig- Veda,"  vol.  i.  p.  80,  note  a. 

\  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  42. 

§  Mandala  i.  Sukta  121,  §  13. 

||  Wilson's  "  Rig-Veda,"  vol.  iii.  p.  129,  com- 
pared with  Max  Miiller  ("Chips,"  vol.  i.  p. 
47)- 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[125]     47 


any  rate,  clear  evidence  that  the  early 
Vedic  poets  had  aspirations  after  im- 
mortality : 

•"  Where  there  is  eternal  light,  in  the  world 

where  the  sun  is  placed, 
In  that  immortal,  imperishable  world,  place 

me,  O  Soma. 

Where   King  Vaivaswata  reigns,  where  the 

secret  place  of  heaven  is, 
Where  the  mighty  waters  are,  there  make  me 

immortal. 

Where  life  is  free,  in  the  third  heaven  of 

heavens, 
"Where  the  worlds  are  radiant,  there  make  me 

immortal. 

Where  wishes  and  desires   are,  where    the 

place  of  the  bright  sun  is, 
Where  there  is  freedom  and  delight,  there 

make  me  immortal. 

Where  there  is  happiness  and  delight,  where 

joy  and  pleasure  reside, 
Where  the  desires  of  our  heart  are  attained, 

there  make  me  immortal."  * 

1 16.  As  thus,  occasionally,  the  deep- 
er problems  of  human  existence  were 
approached,  and,  as  it  were,  just 
touched  by  the  Vedic  bards,  so  there 
were  times  when  some  of  the  more 
thoughtful  among  them,  not  content 
with  the  simple  and  childish  polythe- 
ism that  had  been  the  race's  first  in- 
stinct, attempted  to  penetrate  further 
into  the  mystery  of  the  Divine  exist- 
ence, to  inquire  into  the  relations  that 
subsisted  among  the  various  gods  gen- 
erally worshiped,  and  even  to  search 
out  the  origin  of  all  things.  "  Who  has 
seen,"  says  one, f  "  the  primeval  being 
at  the  time  of  his  being  born,  when 
that  which  had  no  essence  bore  that 
which  had  an  essence  ?  Where  was 
the  life,  the  blood,  the  soul  of  the 
world  ?  Who  sent  to  ask  this  from  the 
sage  that  knew  it  ?  Immature  in  un- 
derstanding, undiscerning  in  mind," 
he  goes  on  to  say,  "  I  inquire  after 
those  things  which  are  hidden  even 

from    the  gods Ignorant,  I 

inquire  of  the  sages  who  know,  who 

*The  translation  is  Prof.  Max  Miiller's 
{"  Chips,"  vol.  i.  p.  46). 

t  Wilson's  "  Rig- Veda,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  127, 
1 28.  Compare  Max  Miiller,  "  Lectures  on 
the  Science  of  Religion,"  p.  46. 


is  the  Only  One  who  upheld  the 
spheres  ere  they  were  created?" 
After  a  multitude  of  speculations,  he 
concludes — "They  call  him  Indra, 
Mitra,  Varuna,  Agni —  then  he  is 
the  beautiful-winged  heavenly  Ga- 
rutmat :  that  which  is  one,  the  wise, 
give  it  many  names — they  c*all  it  Agni, 
Yama,  Matarisvan."  *  Another  is 
still  bolder,  and  plunges  headlong  in- 
to the  deepest  vortex  of  metaphysics. 
The  following  is  a  metrical  version  of 
his  poem  :  f 

"  A  time  there  was,  when  nothing  that  now 

is 

Existed — no,  nor  that  which  now  is  not ; 
There  was  no  sky,  there  was  no  firmament. 
What  was  it  that  then  covered  up  and  hid 
Existence  ?     In  what  refuge  did  it  lie  ? 
Was  water  then  the  deep  and  vast  abyss, 
The  chaos  in  which  all  was  swallowed  up  ? 
There  was  no  Death — and  therefore  naught 

immortal. 
There  was  no  difference  between  night  and 

day. 

The  one  alone  breathed  breathless  by  itself  : 
Nor  has  aught  else  existed  ever  since. 
Darkness  was  spread  around ;  all  things  were 

veiled 

In  thickest  gloom,  like  ocean  without  light. 
The  germ  that  in  a  husky  shell  lay  hid, 
Burst  into  life  by  its  own  innate  heat. 
Then  first  came  Love  upon  it,  born  of  mind, 
Which  the  wise  men  of  old  have  called  the 

bond 

'Twixt  uncreated  and  created  things. 
Came  this  bright  ray  from  heaven,  or  from 

below  ? 
Female   and  male    appeared,    and    Nature 

wrought 
Below,   above    wrought    Will.     Who    truly 

knows, 
Who  has   proclaimed  it  to  us,  whence  this 

world 

Came  into  being?    The  great  gods  them- 
selves 
Were  later  born.     Who  knows  then  whence 

it  came  ? 

The  Overseer,  that  dwells  in  highest  heaven, 
He  surely  knows  it,  whether  He  Himself 
Was,  or  was  not,  the  maker  of  the  whole, 
Or  shall  we  say,  that  even  He  knows  not  ?  " 

117.  This  poem,  and  the  other 
prayers  above  quoted,  are  sufficient 
to  show  that  among  the  Vedic  poets 


*  Max  Miiller,  "  Chips  from  a  German 
Workshop,"  vol.  i.  p.  29. 

1 1  have  followed  as  closely  as  possible  the 
prose  translation  of  Max  Miiller,  given  with 
an  intermixed  comment  in  his  "  History  of  An- 
cient Sanskrit  Literature,"  pp.  559-563. 


48     [120] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


there  were  at  any  rate  some  who,  by 
God's  grace,  had  raised  themselves 
above  the  murky  atmosphere  in  which 
they  were  born,  had  "  sought  the  Lord, 
and  fell  after  Him,"  *  had  struggled 
out  of  polytheism  into  a  conscious 
monotheism,  and,  although  they  could 
not  without  revelation  solve  the 
problem  of  existence,  had  gone  far  to 
realize  the  main  points  of  true  re- 
ligion ;  the  existence  of  one  eternal 
and  perfect  Being,  the  dependence  of 
man  on  Him,  the  necessity  of  men 
leading  holy  lives  if  they  would  please 
Him,  and  the  need,  which  even  the 
best  man  has,  of  His  mercy  and 
forgiveness. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE     RELIGION    OF    THE    PHCENICIANS 
AND   CARTHAGINIANS. 

"  Le  dieu  des  Pheniciens,  comme  de  tons 
Jes  pantheismes  asiatiques,  etait  a  la  fois  un 
et  plusieurs." — LENORMANT,  Manuel  d'His- 
toire  Ancienne^  vol.  iii.  p.  127. 

118.  IN  discussing  the  religion  of 
the  Phoenicians  and  Carthaginians,  we 
have  to  deal  with  a  problem  far  more 
difficult  than  any  which  has  yet  oc- 
cupied us.  No  "  sacred  book,"  like 
the  Rig- Veda,  the  Zendavesta  or  the 
"  Ritual  of  the  Dead,"  here  spreads 
before  us  its  stores  of  knowledge,  re- 
quiring little  more  than  patient  study 
to  yield  up  to  us  the  secrets  which  it  is 
the  object  of  our  inquiry  to  discover. 
No  extensive  range  of  sculptures  or 
paintings  exhibits  to  our  eyes,  as  in 
Assyria,  Greece,  and  Egypt,  the  out- 
ward aspect  of  the  worship,  the  forms 
of  the  gods,  the  modes  of  approaching 
them,  the  general  character  of  the 
ceremonial.  Nor  has  even  any  an- 
cient author,  excepting  one,  treated 
expressly  of  the  subject  in  question, 
or  left  us  anything  that  can  be  called 
in  any  sense  an  account  of  the  religion, 
ft  is  true  that  we  do  possess,  in  the 
"  Evangelical  Preparation  "  of  Euse- 
bius,  a  number  of  -extracts  from  a 


*  Actsxvii.  27. 


Greek  writer  of  the  tirst  or  second 
century  after  Christ  bearing  on  the 
matter,  and  regarded  by  some  mod- 
erns *  as  containing  an  authentic  ex- 
position of  the  Phoenician  teaching 
on  a  number  of  points,  which,  if  not 
exactly  religion,  are  at  any  rate  con- 
nected with  religion.  But  the  work 
of  Philo  Byblius,  from  which  Eusebius 
quotes,  is  so  wild,  so  confused,  so  un- 
intelligible, that  it  is  scarcely  possible 
to  gather  from  it,  unless  by  a  purely 
arbitrary  method  of  interpretation,! 
any  distinct  views  whatsoever.  More- 
over, the  work  is  confined  entirely  to 
cosmogony  and  mythology,  two  sub- 
jects which  are  no  doubt  included  in 
''religion,"  as  that  term  was  under- 
stood in  the  ancient  world,  but  which 
lie  so  much  upon  its  outskirts,  and  so 
little  touch  its  inner  heart,  that  even 
an  accurate  and  consistent  exposition 
would  go  a  very  short  way  toward 
acquainting  us  with  the  real'diamcter 
of  a  religious  system  of  which  we  knew 
only  these  portions.  Add  to  this, 
that  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  Philo 
of  Byblus  reported  truly  what  he 
found  in  the  Phoenician  originals  which 
he  professed  to  translate,  or  did  not 
rather  import  into  them  his  own  phi- 
losophical notions,  and  his  own  theo- 
ries of  the  relation  borne  by  the 
Phoenician  theology  to  that  of  other 
countries. 

119.  If,  upon  these  grounds,  we  re- 
gard the  fragments  of  Philo  Byblius 
as  untrustworthy,  and  as  only  to  be 
used  with  the  utmost  caution,  we  are 
reduced  to  draw  our  knowledge  of 
the  Phoenician  and  Carthaginian  re- 
ligion from  scattered  and  incidental 
notices  of  various  kinds — from  the 
allusions  made  to  the  subject  by  the 
writers  of  portions  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, from  casual  statements  occur- 
ring in  classical  authors,  from  inscrip- 
tions, from  the  etymology  of  names, 


*  Especially  Baron  Bunsen.  (See  "  Egypt's 
Place  in  Universal  History,"  vol.  iii.  pp.  162- 
287.) 

t  Bunsen  assumes  that  Philo's  work  con- 
tains three  cosmogonies,  quite  distinct,  of 
which  the  second  and  third  contradict  the 
first. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[127]    49 


and  from  occasional  representations  | 
accompanying  inscriptions  upon  ' 
stones  or  coins.  Such  sources  as 
these  "  require,"  as  has  been  well 
said,*  "  the  greatest  care  before  they 
can  be  properly  sifted  and  success- 
fully fitted  together  ;  "  and  they  con- 
stitute at  best  a  scanty  and  unsatis- 
factory foundation  for  a  portraiture 
which,  to  have  any  value,  must  be 
drawn  with  some  sharpness  and  defi- 
niteness. 

120.  One  of  the  most  striking  feat- 
ures of  the  Phoenician  polytheism — 
especially  striking  when  we  compare 
it  with  the    systems  which    lay  geo- 
graphically the  nearest  to  it,  those  of 
Egypt  and  Assyria — is  its    compara- 
tive narrowness.     If  we  make  a  col- 
lection of   the   divine   names  in   use 
either  in  Phoenicia  Proper  or  in  the 
Phoenician    colonies,    we    shall  find 
that  altogether  they  do  not  amount  to 
twenty.      Baal,  Ashtoreth,  Melkarth, 
Moloch,    Adonis,     Dagon,    Eshmun, 
Hadad,  El,  Eliun,  Baaltis,  Onca,  Sha- 
mas,    Sadyk,    the     Kabiri,     exhaust 
pretty  nearly   the  list   of  the   native 
deities  ;    and  if  we  add  to  these  the 
divinities  adopted  from  foreign  coun- 
tries,  Tanith,  Hammon  (=  Ammon), 
and  Osir  (=  Osiris),  we  shall  still  find 
the  number  of  distinct  names  not  to 
exceed   eighteen.      This    is    a    small 
number  compared  even  with  the  pan- 
theon  of    Assyria ;     compared    with 
that  of  Egypt,  it  is  very  remarkably 
scanty. 

121.  It  may  be  added  that  there 
are   grounds    for   doubting    whether 
even  the  eighteen  names  above  given 
were    regarded   by    the    Phoenicians 
themselves  as    designating   really  so 
many  deities.     We  shall   find,  as   we 
proceed,  reason  to  believe,  or  to  sus- 
pect, that  in  more  than  one  case  it  is 
the   very    same    deity  who    is  desig- 
nated by  two  or  more  of  the  sacred 
names. 

122.  The  general  character  of  the 
names  themselves  is  remarkable.     A 
large  proportion  of   them  are  honor- 


ific titles,  only  applicable  to  real  per- 
sons, and  indicative  of  the  fact  that 
from  the  first  the  Phoenician  people, 
like  most  other  Semitic  races,  dis- 
tinctly apprehended  the  personality 
of  the  Supreme  Being,  and  intended 
to  worship,  not  nature,  but  God  in 
nature,  not  planets,  or  elements,  or 
storm,  or  cloud,  or  dawn,  or  light- 
ning, but  a  being  or  beings  above  and 
beyond  all  these,  presiding  over  them, 
perhaps,  and  working  through  them, 
but  quite  distinct  from  them,  possess- 
ing a  real  personal  character.  El 
signified  "  the  strong,"  or  "  the  power- 
ful,"'* and  in  the  cognate  Hebrevr 
took  the  article,  and  became  ha-El, 
"the  Strong  One,"  He  who  alone  has 
true  strength,  and  power,  and  who 
therefore  alone  deserves  to  be  called 
"  strong  "  or  "  mighty/''  Eliun  is 
"the  Exalted,"  "the"  Most  High," 
and  is  so  translated  in  our  author- 
ized version  of  Genesis  (xiv.  18), 
where  Melchizedek,'  King  of  Salem, 
the  well-known  type  of  our  blessed 
Lord,f  is  said  to  have  been  "  the 
priest  of  the  most  High  God,"  which 
is  in  the  original,  "  priest  of  El-Eliun." 
Again,  Sadyk  is  "the  Just,"  "the 
Righteous,"  and  is  identical  with  the 
Zcdek  occurring  as  the  second  element 
in  Melchizedek,  which  St.  Paul,  in 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  (vii.  2), 
translates  by  "  King  of  righteousness." 
Baal  is  "  Lord,"  or  "  Master,"  an 
equivalent  of  the  Latin  dominus,  and 
hence  a  term  which  naturally  requires 
another  after  it,  since  a  lord  must  be 
lord  of  something.  Hence  in  Phoe- 
nician inscriptions  $  we  find  Baal- 
Tsur,  "Lord  of  Tyre,"  Baal-Tsidon, 
"Lord  of  Zidon,"  'Baal-Tars,  "Lord 
of  Tarsus,"  and  the  like.  Hence  also 
we  meet  with  such  words  §  as  Baal- 
berith,  "  Lord  of  treaties,"  Baal-pear* 
'•  Lord  of  Peor  "  (a  mountain),  Baal- 
zebub,  "Lord  of  flies,"  and  Bed- 


*  Max  Mliller,  "  Science  of  Religion,"  pp. 
117-118. 


*  Max  Miiller,  "  Science  of  Religion/'  p. 
177. 

t  See  Psa.  ex.  4 ;  Heb.  vii.  1-24. 

J  Gesenius,  "  Scripturae  Linguaeque  Phoe- 
nicia Monumenta,"  pp.  96,  277,  etc. 

§  Num.  xxv.  3,  5 ;  Judg.  viii.  33 ;  ix.  4 ;  2 
Kings  i.  3,  6. 


50    [128] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


samin*  "  Lord  of  Heaven."  Adonis, 
or  more  properly,  Adoni,  for  the  S  is 
merely  the  Greek  nominatival  ending, 
has  nearly  the  same  meaning  as  Baal, 
being  the  Phoenician  equivalent  of  the 
Hebrew  Adonai,  the  word  ordinarily 
rendered  "  Lord  "  in  our  version  of 
the  Old  Testament.  Adoni,  however, 
takes  no  adjunct,  since  it  is  most 
properly  translated  "  my  lord,"  "  lord 
of  me,"  f  and  thus  contains  in  itself 
the  object  of  the  lordship.  Moloch  is 
melck,  "  king,"  the  initial  element  in 
Melchizedek ;  and  it  is  this  same 
word  which  appears  a  second  time, 
with  an  adjunct,  in  Melkarth,  which 
is  a  contraction  of  melek-keretk,  or 
rather  mdek-qereth,%  which  means 
•'**  king  of  the  city."  Baaltis,  or  Baalti, 
'is  the  feminine  form  of  Baal,  with  the 
.-suffix  found  also  in  Adoni,  and  has  the 
•meaning  of  "  my  lady."  The  Greeks 
-.expressed  the  word  most  commonly 
Jby  BeUis,  but  occasionally  by. Bel- 
tihes,§  and,  through  a  confusion  of 
:the  kindred  labials  m  and  £,  by  Mylit- 
:ta,||  The  Kabiri  are  "the  Great 
•Ones,"  from  kabbir,  "  great,"  which 
•ittokts  kabbirim  in  the  plural. 

123.  It  may  be  suspected,  though  it 
<cannot  be  proved,  that  these  various 
'names,  excepting  the  last,  were  origi- 
nally mere  epithets  of  the  One  Eter- 
nal.and  Divine  Being  who  was  felt  to 
.rule  the  world,  and  that,  whatever 
may  have  been  the  case  elsewhere, 
the  Phoenicians  at  any  rate  began 
with  the  monotheistic  idea,  whether 
that  idea  originated  in  the  recesses  of 
their  own  hearts  or  was  impressed 
•tipon  them  from  without  by  revelation. 
If  El,  Eliun,  Sadyk,  Baa],  Adoni,  Mo- 
loch, Melkarth,  were  all  one,  may  not 
,the  same  have  been  true  of  Dagon, 
Hadad,  Eshmun,  Shamas,  -etc.?  nay, 
may  not  even  the  foreign  gods,  Ham- 
mon  and  Osir,;have  been  understood 
to  be  simply  additional  epithets  of  the 
Most  High,  expressive  of  his  attri- 


*  Phil oBybl ius  in  the-".Fragmenta  Histo- 
.ricorum  Grascorum,"  vbl.'iii.,p.  565. 
']  Gesenius,  p.  400. 
J  Gesenius,  p.  96. 
§  .Hesych.  ad  voc.  B^%. 
|  Herod,  i.  131,  199. 


butes    of    inscrutability    and     omni- 

c;nVnr^  ? 


science  i 


124.  A     primary     objection     may 
seem  to  lie  against  this  view  in  the 
fact  that  the  Phoenicians  recognized 
not    only  gods,   but    goddesses,   the 
name  Ashtoreth*  belonging  to  the  re- 
ligion from  the  very  earliest  time  to 
which  we  can  trace  it  back,  and  Baal- 
tis being  placed  by  the  side  of  Baal, 
apparently  as  a  distinct  and  separate 
personage.      But  it  has  been  argued 
that  "the  original  conception  of  fe- 
male   deities    differs   among   Semitic 
and  Aryan  nations,"  and  that  the  fem- 
inine forms  among  the  Semites  "were 
at  first  intended  only  to  express  the 
energy  or  the  collective  powers  of  the 
deity,  not  a  separate  being,  least  of 
all  a  wife."  f     And  this  view  is  con- 
firmed by  passages  in  ancient  inscrip- 
tions which  seem  to  identify  Phoeni- 
cian gods  and  goddesses,  as  one  in 
the  inscription  of  Mesa,  which  speaks 
of  Chemosh-Ashtar  as  a  single  cleity, 
another  in  an   inscription  from  Car- 
thage in  which  Tanith  is  called  Pen- 
Baal,  or  "the  face  of  Baal,"  £  and  a 
third,  on  the  tomb    of   Eshmun azar, 
King  of  Sidon,  where  Ashtoreth  her- 
self is  termed  Shem-Baal,  "  the  name 
of  Baal."  §     If  Ashtoreth  and  Tanith 
were  merely  aspects    of  Baal,  if  the 
Phoenician  Supreme  God  was  "and- 
rogynous," ||  the  fact  that  the  religious 
system  of  the  people   admitted  god- 
desses as  well  as  gods,  will  not  mili- 
tate against  its  original  monotheism. 

125.  A  more  vital  objection  may  be 
taken  from  the  two  names,  Eshmun 
and  Kabiri.     The    Kabiri    were    the 
sons  of  Sadyk ;    they  were  seven  in 


*  Baal  and  Ashtoreth  appear  first  distinctly 
as  Phoenician  gods  in  i  Kings  xi.  5 ;  but  we 
may  suspect  that  they  bear  the  same  charac- 
ter where  they  are  mentioned  in  Judges  ii.  13 ; 
x.  6.  They  appear  as  Syrian  gods  in  the  hi- 
eroglyphical  inscriptions  as  early  as  Rameses 
II.  (about  r..c.  1350). 

t  Max  Muller,  "  Science  of  Religion,"  p. 
183. 

}  De  Vogue  in  the  "Journal  Asiatique  "for 
1867,  p.  138. 

§  Max  Muller,  "Science  of  Religion,"  p. 
184. 

y  "  Speaker's  Commentary,"  vol.  i.  p.  732. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[129]     51 


number;*  they  were  actual  deities, 
the  special  gods  of  sailors  ;  images  of 
them  adorned  the  prows  of  vessels. 
And  Eshmun,  the  name  of  their 
brother,  is  a  word  signifying  "eight," 
or  the  "  eighth."  It  seems  clear  from 
this  that  the  Phoenicians  ultimately 
recognized  at  least  eight  gods  ;  aiid  if 
so,  we  must  pronounce  them  polythe- 
ists. 

126.  At  any  rate,  whether   or   no 
they  were  polytheists  from  the  first, 
it  cannot  be  doubted   that  they  be- 
came such.     When  the  Carthaginian 
introduced  by  Plautus  into  his  "  Pce- 
nulus  "  commences  his  speech  f  with 
the  Words  "  Yth  alonim  v'alonuth  sic- 
carthi,"  which  Plautus  rightly  renders 
by  "  Deos  deasque  veneror,"  or,  "  I 
worship  the  gods  and  goddesses,"  he 
expresses  a  genuine  Phoenician  senti- 
ment.    Baal  and  Ashtoreth,  if  origi- 
nally one,  were  soon   divided,  were 
represented  under  different  forms,  and 
were  worshiped    separately.     El,   El- 
iun,  Sadyk,  Adonis,  Melkarth,  drifted 
off  from  their  original  moorings,  and 
became   distinct   and  separate   gods, 
sometimes    with   a   local   character.! 
Dagon,. Eshmun,  Shamas,  had  perhaps 
been  distinct  from  their  first  introduc- 
tion, as  had  been  the  Kabiri,  and  per- 
haps some  others.     Thus  a  small  pan- 
theon was  formed,   amounting,  even 
including  the  Kabiri,  to  no  more  than 
about  fifteen  or  twenty  divinities. 

127.  At  the  head  of  all  clearly  stood 
Baal  and  Ashtoreth,  the   great  male 
and  the  great  female  principles.    Baal, 
"  the  Lord  " par  excellence,  was  perhaps 
sometimes  and  in  some  places  taken 
to  be  the  sun;  §  but  this  was  certainly 
hot  the  predominant  idea  of  any  pe- 
riod ;  and  it  maybe  questioned  whether 
in  the  original  seats  of  the  nation  it 
was  ever   entertained  until  after  the 
Roman  conquest.      As  Bel  in   Baby- 
lonia  was   completely   distinct    from 


Shamas,*  so  was  Baal  in  Phoenicia.! 
The  Greeks  rendered  Bel  and  Baal, 
not  by  Apollo,  but  by  Zeus  ;  $  and 
their  rendering  was  approved  by  Philo 
Byblius,§  who,  if  a  Greek  by  extrac- 
tion, was  well  versed  in  Phoenician 
lore,  and  a  native  of  Byblus,  a  Phoeni- 
cian town.  Baal  seems  really  to  have 
been  the  Supreme  God.  His  chief  ti- 
tles were  Baal-shamayin,  "the  Lord 
of  heaven,"  Baal-berith,  "  the  Lord  of. 
treaties,"  corresponding  to  the  Grecian 
"  Zeus  Orkios,"  and  Belithan,  \  "  the 
aged  Lord,"  with  which  we  may  com- 
pare the  Biblical  phrase,  "the  An- 
cient of  days."  IT  He  was  also 
known  in  Numidia  as  "  the  eternal 
king."  **  Baal  was  the  god  to  whom 
we  may  almost  say  that  most  Phoeni- 
cians were  consecrated  soon  after 
their  birth,  the  names  given  to  them 
being  in  almost  a  majority  of  cases 
compounded  with  Baal  or  Bal.f  t  Ded- 
icatory inscriptions  are  in  general  ad- 
dressed to  him,  either  singly, %\  or  in 
conjunction  with  a  goddess,  who  is 
most  usually  Tanith.§§  Not  unfre- 
quently  he  is  addressed  as  Baal-Ham-, 
mon,  or  Baal  in  the  character  of  the 
Egyptian  god  Ammon,||||  with  whom 
he  is  thus  identified,  not  unnaturally, 
since  Ammon  too  was  recognized  as 
the  Supreme  God,  and  addressed  as 
Zeus  or  Jupiter. IT  If 

128.  Ashtoreth,  or  Astarte,  is  a 
word  whereof  no  satisfactoiy  account 
has  as  yet  been  given.  It  seems  to 
have  no  Semitic  derivation,  and  may 
perhaps  have  been  adopted  by  the 


*  "  Philo  Byblius,"  c.  5,  §  8 ;  Damascius 
ap.  Phot.  "  Bibliothec."  p.  573. 

t  Plaut.  "  Poenul."  Act  v.  §  I. 

.J  Moloch  became  the  special  god  of  the 
Ammonites  ;  Hadad,  of  the  Syrians.' 

§  See  Gesenius,  "  Scrip.  Phoenic.  Mon.," 
pi.  21. 


*  See  above,  p.  52-57. 

t  The  separate  worship  of  Shamas,  or  the 
Sun,  appears  in  2  Kings  xxiii.  5,  and  in  Gese- 
nius, p.  119. 

J  Herod,  i.  181  ;  Diod.  Sic.  ii.  9. 

§  Philo  Bybi.,  c.  iv.  §  14.   ' 

||  Damasc.  ap.  Phot.  "  Bibliothec."  cod. 
ccxlii.  p.  559. 

IT  Dan.  vii.  9,  13. 

**  Gesenius,  pp.  197,  202,  205. 

It  Eth-baal  (i  Kings  xvi.  31),  Merbal  (Her- 
od, vii.  98),  Hannibal,  Hasdrubal,  Adherbal, 
Maharbal,  are  well-known  instances. 

JJ  Gesenius,  "  Script.  Phcen.  Mon.,"  Nos.  3, 
4,  49,  51,  etc. 

§§  Ibid.  Nos.  46,  47,  48,  and  50. 

||  !|  Ibid.  p.  172. 

TS"  Herod,  ii.  42 ;   Diod.  Sic.  i.  13 ; 
'"  De  Isid.  et  Osir,"  s.  9. 


[130] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


Semites  from  an  earlier  Hamitic 
population.  Originally  a  mere  name 
for  the  energy  or  activity  of  God, 
Ashtoreth  came  to  be  regarded  by 
the  Phoenicians  as  a  real  female  per- 
sonage, a  supreme  goddess,  on  a  par 
-with  Baal,*  though  scarcely  wor- 
shiped so  generally.  In  the  native 
mythology  she  was  the  daughter  of 
Uranos  (heaven),  and  the  wife  of  El, 
or  Saturn. t  The  especial  place  of  her 
.worship  in  Phoenicia  was  Sidon.J  In 
one  of  her  aspects  she  represented 
the  moon,  and  bore  the  head  of  a 
heifer  with  horns  curving  in  a  cres- 
cent form,§  whence  she  seems  to 
have  been  sometimes  called  Ashto- 
reth KarnaimJ  or,  "  Astarte  of  the 
two  horns."  But,  more  commonly, 
she  was  a  nature  goddess,  "the  great 
mother,"  the  representation  of  the 
female  principle  in  nature,  and  hence 
presiding  over  the  sexual  relation, 
and  connected  more  or  less  with  love 
and  with  voluptuousness.  The 
Greeks  regarded  their  Aphrodite,  and 
the  Romans  their  Venus,  as  her  equiv- 
alent. One  of  her  titles  was  "  Queen 
of  Heaven  :  "  and  under  this  title  she 
was  often  worshiped  by  the  Israel- 
ites.H 

129.  Melkarth  has  been  regarded  by 
.some  writers  as  "  only  another  form 
of  Baal."  **  But  he  seems  to  have  as 
good  a  claim  to  a  distinct  personality 
as  any  Phoenician  deity  after  Ash- 
toreth and  Baal.  The  Greeks  and 
Romans,  who  make  Baal  equivalent 
to  their  Zeus  or  Jupiter,  always  iden- 
tify Melkarth  with  Hercules  ;tt  and  in 
a  bilingual  inscription,  $$  set  up  by 
two  natives  of  Tyre,  this  identifica- 


*  See  the  inscription  in  Gesenius'  collec- 
tion, numbered  Si  (pi.  47),  where  Baal  and 
Ashtoreth  are  joined  together.  Compare 
Judg.  ii.  13  ;  x.  6. 

•t'PhilcTBybl.  c.  iv.  §  12. 

t  See  i  Kings  xi.  5,  33,  and  compare  the 
inscription  of  Eshmunazar. 

§  Philo  Byblius,  c.  v.  §  I. 

||  Gen.  xiv.  5. 

1[  Jer.  vii.  18  ;  xliv.  25. 

**  Kenrick,  "  Phoenicia,"  p.  322. 

ft  Herod,  ii.  44  ;  Philo  Bybl.  c.  iv.  §  19, 
etc. 

Jt  This  inscription  is  given  by  Gesenius 
(pi.  6). 


tion  is  endorsed  and  accepted.  When 
Melkarth  is  qualified  as  baal-Tsur, 
"baal  of  Tyre,"  it  is  not  meant  that 
he  was  the  Tyrian  form  of  the  god 
Baal,  but  that  he  was  the  special 
tutelary  "  lord  "  of  the  great  Phoeni- 
cian city.  The  word  Melkarth,  as 
already  explained,  means  "king  of- 
the  city,"  and  the  city  intended  was 
originally  Tyre,  though  Melkarth 
would  seem  to  have  been  in  course  of 
time  regarded  as  a  god  of  cities  gen- 
erally ;  and  thus  he  was  worshiped 
at  Carthage,  at  Heraclea  in  Sicily,  at 
Amathus  in  Cyprus,  at  Gades  in 
Spain,  and  elsewhere.*  In  Numidia  t 
he  had  the  title  of  "great  lord  ;  "  but 
otherwise  there  is  little  in  the  Phoeni- 
cian monuments  to  define  his  attri- 
butes or  fix  his  character.  We  must 
suppose  that  the  Greeks  traced  in 
them  certain  resemblances  to  their 
own  conception  of  Hercules  ;  but  it 
may  be  doubtful  whether  the  resem- 
blances were  not  rather  fanciful  than 
real. 

130.  That  Dagon  was  a  Phoenician 
god  appears  from  many  passages  in 
the  fragments  of  Philo  Byblius. $ 
though  the  Israelites  would  seem  to 
have  regarded  him  as  a  special  Philis- 
tine deity.§  There  are  indications,  || 
however,  of  his  worship  having  been 
spread  widely  through  Western  Asia 
in  very  early  times ;  and  its  primitive 
source  is  scarcely  within  the  range  of 
conjecture.  According  to  the  general 
idea,  the  Phoenician  Dagon  was  a 


*  See  the  inscriptions  in  Gesenius  (pis.  14, 
16,  17) :  and  the  coins  of  Heraclea  (pi.  38), 
of  Gades  (pi.  40),  and  of  Sextus  (ibid.}  in  the 
same.  On  Amathus,  see  Hesychius  and  voc. 
Malicha. 

t  Gesenius,  pi.  27,  No.  65. 

\  Especially  c.  iv.  §§  2,  6,  15. 

§  Judg.  xvi.  23 ;  i  Sam.  v.  2-5 ;  I  Chron. 
x.  10. 

||  Berosus  speaks  of  an  early  Babylonian 
god  as  bearing  the  name  of  O-dacon,  \vhich 
is,  perhaps,  Dagon  with  a  prefix.  Dagon  is 
an  element  in  the  name  of  a  primitive  Chal- 
dzcan  monarch,  which  is  read  as  Ismi-Dagon. 
Asshur-izir-pal  couples  Dagon  with  Ann  in. 
his  inscriptions,  and  represents  himself  an 
equally  the  votary  of  both.  Da-gan  is  also 
found  in'  the  Assyrian  remains  as  an  epithet 
of  Belus.  (See  the  Author's  "  Ancient 
Monarchies,"  vol.  i.  p.  614  ;  2d  edition.) 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[131]    03 


Fish-god,*  having  the  form  described 
by  Berosus,  and  represented  so  often 
in  the  Assyrian  sculptures — "  a  form 
resembling  that  of  a  fish,  but  with  a 
human  head  growing  below  the  fish's, 
and  with  human  feet  gro wing  along- 
side of  the  fish's  tail  and  coming  out 
from  it."f  Fish  are  common  em- 
blems upon  the  Phoenician  coins ;  $ 
and  the  word  Dagon  is  possibly  de- 
rived from  dag,  "  a  fish,"  so  that  the 
temptation  to  identify  the  deity  with 
the  striking  form  revealed  to  us  by 
the  Ninevite  sculptures  is  no  doubt 
considerable.  It  ought,  however,  to 
be  borne  in  mind  that  there  is  nothing 
in  the  Scriptural  description  of  the 
Philistine  Dagon  to  suggest  the  idea 
that  the  image  which  fell  on  its  face 
before  the  ark  of  the  covenant  had  in 
any  respect  the  form  of  a  fish.§  Nor 
do  the  Assyrian  monuments  connect 
the  name  of  Dagon,  which  they  cer- 
tainly contain, (I  with  the  Fish-deity 
whose  image  they  present.  That 
deity  is  Nin  or  Nintis.lf  Altogether, 
therefore,  it  must  be  pronounced  ex- 
ceedingly doubtful  whether  the  popu- 
lar idea  has  any  truth  at  all  in 
it ;  or  whether  we  ought  not  to  revert 
to  the  view  put  forward  by  Philo,** 
that  the  Phoenician  Dagon  was  a 
"  corn-god,"  and  presided  over  agri- 
culture. 

131.  Adonis,  or  Tammuz,  which 
was  probably  his  true  name,ft  was  a 
god  especially  worshiped  at  Byblus. 
He  seems  to  have  represented  nature 


*  See  Kenrick,  "  Phoenicia,"  p.  323  ;  Lay- 
ard,  "  Nineveh  and  Babylon,"  p.  343 ; 
"  Speaker's  Commentary,"  vol.  ii.  p.  201,  etc. 

t  Beros.  Fr.  i.  §  3. 

t  Geseniu>,  "Script.  Phcen.  Monumenta," 
pis.  40  and  41. 

§  There  is  nothing  in  the  original  corre- 
sponding to  "  the  fishy  part,"  which  is  given 
in  the  margin  of  the  Authorized  Version. 
The  actual  words  are,  "  only  Dagon  was  left 
to  him."  The  meaning  is  obscure. 

|[  Sir  II.  Rawlinson  in  the  Author's  "  He- 
rodotus," vol.  i.  p.  614 :  3d  edition. 

If  Ibid.  p.  642. 

**  Philo  Bybl.  c.  iv.  §  2  : — Aoy^v,  cq  ia-l 
STW:;.  Compare  §  13,  where  Dagon  is  said 
to  have  discovered  corn  and  invented  the 
plow,  whence  he  was  regarded  by  the  Greeks 
as  equivalent  to  their  Zeus  Arotrios. 

*"\  Gesenius,  "  Script.  Phoen.  Mon."  p.  400. 


in  its  alternate  decline  and  revival, 
whence  the  myth  spoke  of  his  death 
and  restoration  to  life;  the  river  of 
Byblus  was  regarded  as  annually  red- 
dened with  his  blood;  and  once  a 
year,  at  the  time  of  the  summer  sol- 
stice, the  women  of  Phoenicia  and 
Syria  generally  "  wept  for  Tammuz."  * 
Extravagant  sorrow  was  followed  after 
an  interval  by  wild  rejoicings  in  honor 
of  his  restoration  to  life  ;  and  the  ex- 
citement attendant  on  these  alterna- 
tions of  joy  and  woe  led  on  by  almost 
necessary  consequence,  with  a  people 
of  such  a  temperament  as  the  Syrians, 
to  unbridled  license  and  excess.  The 
rites  of  Aphaca,  where  Adonis  ha.d 
his  chief  temple,  were  openly  immoral, 
and  when  they  were  finally  put  down, 
exhibited  every  species  of  abomina- 
tion characteristic  of  the  worst  forms 
of  heathenism. f 

132.  El,  whom  Philo  Byblius  iden- 
tifies with  Kronos,^  or  Saturn,  is  a 
shadowy  god  compared  with  those 
hitherto  described.  In  the  mythol- 
ogy he  was  the  child  of  heaven  atid 
earth,  the  brother  of  Dagon,  and  the 
father  of  a  son  whom  he  sacrificed.§ 
His  actual  worship  by  the  Phoenicians 
is  not  very  well  attested,  but  may  be 
regarded  as  indicated  by  such  names 
as  Hanni-el,  Kaclml  (=  Kadmi-el), 
Enyl  (=  Eni-el)  and  the  like.||  He  is 
said  to  have  been  identified  with  the 
planet  Saturn  by  the  Phoenicians  ;  TT 
and  this  may  be  true  of  the  later  form 
of  the  religion,  though  El  originally 
can  scarcely  have  been  anything  but 
a  name  of  the  Supreme  God.  It  cor- 
responded beyond  a  doubt  to  II,  in 
the  system  of  the  Babylonians,  who 


*  Ezek.  viii.  14. 

t  Euseb.  "  Vit.  Constantin.  Magn."  iii. 
55.  Compare  Kenrick,  "  Phoenicia,"  vol.  i. 
p. 311. 

\  Philo  Bybl.  c.  iv.  §  2  :—'  lUov  rov  ml  Kp6- 
vov.  Compare  §  10  and  §  21. 

§  Philo  Bybl.  c.  iv.  §  3. 

||  Hanni-el  occurs  in  a  Phoenician  inscrip- 
tion (Gesen.  p.  133).  Cadmil  is  given  as  one 
of  the  Kabiri  by  the  Scholiast  on  Apollonius 
Rhodius  (i.  917).  Enyl  is  mentioned  as  a 
king  of  Byblus  by  Arrian  ("  Exp.  Alex."  ii. 
20). 

TJ  Philo  Bybl.  1.  s.  c. 


[132] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


was  the  head  of  the  pantheon,*  and 
the  special  god  of  Babel,  or  Baby- 
lon, which  is  expressed  by  Bab-il, 
"the  gate  of  II,"  in  the  inscriptions.! 
133.  That  Shamas,  or  Shemesh,  "  the 
sun,"  was  worshiped  separately  from 
Baal  has  been  already  mentioned.  In 
Assyria  and  Babylonia  he  was  one  of 
the  foremost  deities.;- J -and  his  cult 
among  the  Phoenicians  is  witnessed 
by  such  a  name  as  Abed-Shemesh, 
which  is  found  in  two  of  the  native 
inscriptions^  Abed-She.mesh  means 
"  servant  of  Shemesh,"  as  Obadiah 
means  "  servant  of  Jehovah,"  and  Ab- 
dallah  "  servant  of  Allah  "  ;  and  is  an 
unmistakable  evidence  of  the  worship 

,  of  Shemesh  by  the  people  who  em- 
ployed it  as  the  parallel  names  are 
of  the  worship,  respectively,  of  Jeho- 

,  vah  and  Allah,  by  Jews  and  Moham- 
medans. The  sun-worship  of  the 

I  Phoenicians  seems  to  have  been  ac- 
companied by  a  use  of  "  sun -im- 
ages," ||  of  which  we  have  perhaps  a 
specimen  on  a  votive  tablet  found 
in  Numidia,^"  although  the  tablet  it- 
self is  dedicated  to  Baal.  There  was 
also  connected  with  it  a  dedication  to 
the  sun-god  of  chariots  and  horses,  to 

1  which  a  quasi-divine  character  at- 
tached,** so  that  certain  persons  were 
from  their  birth  consecrated  to  the 
sacred  horses,  and  given  by  their  par- 
ents the  name  of  Abed-Susim,  "  serv- 
ant of  the  horses,"  as  we  find  by  an 
inscription  from  Cyprus.ft  It  may  be 
suspected  that  the  Haclad  or  Hadar 
of  the  Syrians  £$  was  a  variant  name 
of  Shamas,  perhaps  connected  with 
adir,  "  glorious,"  and  if  so,  with  the 


epharvite  gad,  Adrammelech.*  Ad- 
>dus,  according  to  Philo  Byblius,  was 
n  a  certain  sense  "kingVw^)  of 
he  gods." 

134.    These    latter   considerations 
nake  it  doubtful  whether  the  Moloch 
r  Molech,  who  was  the  chief  divinity 
f   the  Ammonites,!    and  of  whose 
vorship  by  the  Phoenicians  there  are 
ertain  indications,!  is  to  be  viewed 
as  a  separate  and  substantive  god,  or 
as  a  form  of  some  other,  as  of  Shamas, 
r  of  Baal,  or  of  Melkarth,  or  even  of 
£1.     Molech  meaning  simply  "  king  " 
s  a  term  that  can    naturally  be  ap- 
plied to  any  "  great  god,"  and  which 
nay  equally  well   designate   each    of 
he    four     deities     just     mentioned. 
Rites  like  those  of  Molech  belonged 
certainly  to    El  and  to   Baal ;  §   and 
he  name  may  be  an  abbreviation   of 
Melkarth,  ||  or  a  title — the  proper  title 
— of   Shamas.     The  fact  that   Philo 
las  a  Melich,  whom  he  makes  a  dis- 
inct  deity,1F  is  of  no  great  importance, 
since  it  is  clear  that  he  multiplies  the 
Phoenician   gods  unnecessarily  ;  and 
.noreover,   by  explaining   Melich   as 
equivalent    to    Zeus     Meilichios,   he 
tends   to   identify   him  with   Baal.** 
Upon     the     whole,     Moloch     seems 
scarcely  entitled  to  be   viewed   as  a 
distinct  Phoenician  deity.     The  word 
Ar as   perhaps  not  a  proper   name  in 
Plusnicia,  but  retained  its  appellative 
force,  and  may  have  applied  to  more 
than  one  deity. 

135.  A  similarly  indefinite  char- 
acter attaches  to  the  Phoenician  Ba- 
altis.  Beltis  was  in  Babylonian  my- 


*  See  above,  p.  47. 

t  Sir  H.  Rawlinson  in  the  Author's  "  He- 


PP 


rodotus,"  vol.  i.  p.  613. 

\  The   Author's  "  Herodotus,"  vol.  i. 
631-634. 

§  Gesenius,  "  Script.  Phcen.  Mon."  pi.  9. 

H  This  is  given  in  the  margin  of  2  Chron 
xiv.  5  and  xxxiv.  4,  as  the  proper  translator 
of  khammanim^  which  seem  certainly  to 
have  been  images  of  some  kind  or  other. 

IF  Gesenius,  "Script.  Phoen.  Mon."  pi.  21. 

**  See  2  Kings  xxiii,  n. 

tt  Gesenius,  p,  130,  and  pi.  n,  No.  9. 

tj  Found  under  the  form  of  Adodus  it 
Philo  Byblius  (c.  v.  §  i 


*  2  King  xvii.  31. 

t  See  i  Kings  xi.  7. 

\  The  names  Bar-melek,  Abed-melek,  and 
Melek-itten,  which  occur  in  Phcen  ician  in- 
scriptions (Gesenius,  pp.  105,  130,  135),  im- 
ply a  god  who  has  either  the  proper  name  of 
Moloch,  or  is  worshiped  as  "  the  king." 

§Diod.  Sic.  xx.  14;  Porphyr.  "De  Ab- 
stinentia,"  ii.  56;  Gesen.  "Script.  Phcen. 
Mon."  p.  153. 

II  Melkarth  is  frequently  abbreviated  in  the 
Phoenician  inscriptions,  and  becomes  Mel- 
kar,  Mokarth,  and  even  Mokar.  Hesychius 
says  that  at  Amathus  Hercules  \vas  called 
Malika, 

J  Philo  Bybl.  c.  iii.  §  9. 

**  Since  he  calls  Baal  Zeus  Belus  (c.  iv.  § 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[133]    55 


thology  a  real  substantive  goddess, 
quite  distinct  and  separate  from  Ish- 
tar,  Gula,  and  Zirbanit;*  but  Baallis 
in  Phoenicia  had  no  such  marked 
character.  We  hear  of  no  temples  of 
Baaltis;  of  no  city  where  she  was 
specially  worshiped.!  The  word 
does  not  even  occur  as  an  element  in 
Phoenician  proper  names,  and  if  in 
use  at  all  as  a  sacred  name  among 
the  Phoenicians,  must  almost  cer- 
tainly have  been  a  mere  epithet  of 
Ashtoreth,t  who  was  in  reality  the 
sole  native  goddess.  Lydus  expressly 
states  §  that  Blatta,  which  is  (like 
Mylitta)  a  corruption  of  Baalti,  was 
"  a  name  given  to  Venus  by  the  Phoe- 
nicians." 

136.  Saclyk  again,  whom  we  have 
meiuioned  as  a  distinct  deity  on  the 
strength  of  statements  in  Philo  Byb- 
lius    and    Damascius,  j|    scarcely    ap- 
pears as  a  separate  object  of  worship, 
either     in     Phoenicia    or   elsewhere. 
The  nearest  approach  to  such  an  ap- 
pearance is  furnished  by   the  names 
Melchi-zeclek,      and      Adoni-zedek,1T 
which  may  admit  of  the  renderings, 
"  Sadyk  is  my  king/'  "  Saclyk  is   my 
lord."     Sadyk  has  not  been  found  as 
an  element   in  any  purely  Phoenician 
name  ;  much  less  is  there  any  distinct 
recognition  of  him  as  a  god  upon  any 
Phoenician  monument.     We  are  told 
that  he  was  the  father  of  Eshmun  and 
the  Kabiri ;  **  and  as  they  were  cer- 
tainly Phoenician  gods  we  must  per- 
haps accept  Sadyk  as  also   included 
among  their  deities.     From  his  name 
we  may  conclude  that  he  was  a  per- 
sonification of  the  Divine  Justice. 

137.  Eshmun      is,    next     to    Baal, 
Ashtoreth,  and    Melkarth,    the  most 
clearly  marked   and  distinct    presen- 
tation of   a   separate   deity  that   the 


Phoenician  remains  set  before  us. 
He  was  the  especial  god  of  Berytus 
\\Bdnii)*  and  had  characteristics 
|  which  attached  to  no  other  deity. 
Why  the  Greeks  should  have  identi- 
fied him  with  their  Asclepias  or 
^Escuiapius,t  is  not  clear.  He  was 
the  youngest  son  of  Sadyk,  and  was  a 
youth  of  great  beauty,  with  whom 
Ashtoreth  fell  in  love,  as  she  hunted 
in  the  Phoenician  forests.  The  fable 
relates  how,  being  frustrated  in  her 
designs,  she  afterward  changed  him 
into  a  god,  and  transported  him  from 
earth  to  heaven. %  Thenceforth  he 
was  worshiped  by  the  Phoenicians 
almost  as  much  as  Baal  and  Ashto- 
reth themselves.  His  name  became 
a  frequent  element  in  the  Phoenician 
proper  names  ;§  and  his  cult  was 
taken  to  Cyprus,  to  Carthage,  and  to 
Other  distant  colonies. 

138.  With  Eshmun  must  be  placed 
the  Kabiri,  who  in  the  mythology 
were  his  brothers,  ||  though  not  born 
of  the  same  mother.lT  It  is  doubtful 
whether  the  Kabiri  are  to  be  regarded 
as  originally  Phoenician,  or  as  adopt- 
ed into  the  religion  of  the  nation 
from  without.  The  word  appears  to 
be  Semitic ;  **  but  the  ideas  which 
attach  to  it  seem  to  belong  to  a  wide- 
spread superstition, ft  whereby  the 
discovery  of  fire  and  the  original  work- 
ing in  metals  were  ascribed  to  strong, 
misshapen,  and  generally  dwarfish 


*  See  above,  p.  61. 

t  Philo  makes  her  a  "  queen  of  Byblus  " 
(c.  v.  §  5),  but  says  nothing  of  her  worship 
there. 

J  See  Kenrick's  "  Phoenicia,"  p.  301. 

§  "  De  Mensibus,"  i.  19. 

I)  Philo  Byblius,  c.  iii.  §  13;  c.  iv.  §  16; 
etc.  Damasc.  ap.  Phot.  "  JJibliothec."  p. 

IT  See  Gen.  xiv.  18,  and  Josh.  x.  i. 

**  Philo  Byblius,  c.  iii.  §  14  5  c.  iv.  §  16. 


*See  Darnascius   ap.  Phot.  "  liibliothec." 

'  t  This  is  done  by  Philo  of  Byblus  (c.  v.  §  8), 
by  Damascius  (1.  s,  c.),  by  Strabo  (xviL  14), 
and  others. 

\  Damascius, -1,  s.  c. 

§  Eshmun-azar,  whose  tomb  has  beew 
found  at  Sidon,  is  the  best  known  instance; 
but  the  Phoenician  inscriptions  give  also 
Bar-Eshmun,  Han-Eshmun,  Netsib-Eshrnutj, 
Abed-Eshmun,  Eshmun-itten  and  others. 
(See  Gesenius,  ''Script.  Phoen.  Mon.".p. 
136.) 

11  Damascius,  1.  s.  c. ;  Philo  Byblius,  c.  v. 
§8. 

T  Philo  Bybl.  c.  iv,  §  16. 

**  See  above,  p.  150.  Mr.  Kenrick  ques- 
tions the  derivation  from  kabbir  ("  Egypt  of 
Herodotus,"  p.  287) ;  but  almost  all  other 
writers  allow  it. 

ft  See  Mr.  Kenrick's  "  Notes  on  the  Ca- 
biri,"  in  the  work  above  mentioned,  pp.  264- 
287. 


56    [134] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


deities,  like  Phthah  in  Egypt,  Hepha- 
istos  and  the  Cyclopes  in  Greece, 
';  Gav  the  blacksmith  "  in  Persia,  and 
the  gnomes  in  the  Scandinavian  and 
Teutonic  mythologies.  According  to 
Philo  Byblius  *  and  Damascius,t 
{he  Phoenician  Kabiri  were  seven  in 
number,  and  according  to  the  Scho- 
liast on  Apollonius  Rhodius,$  the 
names  of  four  of  them  were  Axierus, 
Axiokersus,  Axiokersa,  and  Cadmilus 
or  Casmilus.  Figures  supposed  to 
represent  them,  or  some  of  them,  are 
found  upon  Phoenician  coins,  as  espe- 
cially on  those  of  Cossura,§  which  are 
exceedingly  curious.  The  Kabiri 
were  said  to  have  invented  ships  ;  || 
and  it  is  reasonable  to  regard  them 
as  represented  by  the  Pataeci  of 
Herodotus,1[  which  were  pigmy  fig- 
ures placed  by  the  Phoenicians  on  the 
prows  of  their  war-galleys,  no  doubt 
as  tutelary  divinities.  The  Greeks 
'compared  the  Kabiri  with  their  own 
Castor  and  Pollux,  who  like  them 
presided  over  navigation.** 

Besides  their  original  and  native 
deities,  the  Phoenicians  acknowledged 
some  whom  they  had  certainly  intro- 
duced into  their  system  from  an  ex- 
ternal source,  as  Osiris,  Ammon,  and 
Tariith.  The  worship  of  Osiris  is 
represented  on  the  coins  of  Gaulos,tt 
which  was  an  early  Phoenician  settle- 
ment ;  and  "  Osir  "  (=Osiris)  occurs 
not  unfrequently  as  an  element  in 
Phoenician  names, $-t  where  it  occupies 
the  exact  place  elsewhere  assigned 
to  Baal,  Melkarth,  and  Ashtoreth. 
Ammon  is  found  under  the  form 
Hammon  in  votive  tablets,  but  does 
not  occur  independently ;  it  is  al- 
ways attached  as  an  epithet  to  Baal.§§ 


•    *  Philo  Bvblius,  c.  v.  §  8. 

t  Damascius,  1.  s.  c. 

t  Schol.  ad  Apoll.  Rhod.  "  Argonautica," 
i.  915. 

§  See  Gesenius,  "  Script.  Phoen.  Mon."  pi. 
39. 

||  Philo  Byblius,  c.  iii.  §  14. 

T[  Herod,  iii.  37. 

•**  Horat.  "  Od."  i.  3,  2 ;  iii.  29,  64. 

tt  Gesenius,  pi.  40,  A. 

J|  Ibid.  pp.  96,  no,  130,  etc. 

§§  Ibid.  pp.  108,  1 68,  174,  i7>  J77>  and 
•Davis,  "  Carthage  and  her  Remains,"  pi.  opp. 
p.  256. 


Whether  it  determines  the  aspect  of 
Baal  to  that  of  a  "  sun-god  "  may  be 
questioned,*  since  the  original  idea 
of  Ammon  was  as  far  as  possible  re- 
mote from  that  of  a  solar  deity.t 
But,  at  any  rate,  the  constant  connec- 
tion shows  that  the  two  gods  were 
not  really  viewed  as  distinct,  but  that 
in  the  opinion  of  the  Phoenicians 
their  own  Baal  corresponded  to  the 
Ammon  of  the  Egyptians,  both  alike 
representing  the  Supreme  Being. 
Tanith  has  an  important  place  in  a 
number  of  the  inscriptions,  being 
given  precedence  over  Baal  himself. $ 
She  was  worshiped  at  Carthage,  in 
Cyprus, §  by  the  Phoenician  settlers 
at  Athens  |j  and  elsewhere ;  but  we 
have  no  proof  of  her  being  acknowl- 
edged in  Phoenicia  itself.  The  name 
is  connected  by  Gesenius  with  that  of 
the  Egyptian  goddess  Neith,1T  or 
Net ;  but  it  seems  rather  to  represent 
the  Persian  Tanata,  who  was  known 
as  Tanaitis  or  Tanai's,  and  also  as 
Anaitis  or  Aneitis  to  the  Greeks. 
Whether  there  was,  or  was  not,  a  re- 
mote and  original  connection  be- 
tween the  goddesses  Neith  and  Ta- 
nata is  perhaps  open  to  question ; 
but  the  form  of  the  name  Tanith,  or 
Tanath,**  shows  that  the  Phoenicians 
adopted  their  goddess,  not  from 
Egypt,  but  from  Persia.  With  re- 
gard to  the  character  and  attributes 
of  Tanath,  it  can  only  be  said  that, 
while  in  most  respects  she  corre- 
sponded closely  with  Ashtoreth,  whom 
she  seems  to  have  replaced  at  Car- 
thage, she  had  to  a  certain  extent  a 
more  elevated  and  a  severer  aspect. 
The  Greeks  compared  her  not  only 


*  This  was  the  opinion  of  Gesenius 
("Script.  Phosn.  Mon."  p.  170);  but  his 
arguments  upon  the  point  are  not  convincing. 

t  See  above,  p.  19. 

\  See  Gesenius,  pp.  168,  174,  175,  177; 
Davis,  "  Carthage  and  her  Remains,"  1.  s.  c. 

§  Gesenius,  p.  151.  Compare  p.  146, 
where  the  true  reading  is  possibly  Abed- 
Tanith. 

||  Ibid.  p.  113. 

1  Ibid.  pp.  117,  118. 

**  "  Tanath  "is  the  natural  rendering  of  the 
Phoenician  word,  rather  than  "  Tanith,"  and 
is  preferred  by  some  writers.  (See  Davis, 
"Carthage  and  her  Remains/'  pp.  274-276.) 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[135]     57 


to  their  Aphrodite,  but  also  to  their 
Artemis,*1  the  huntress-deity,  whose 
noble  form  is  known  to  us  from  many 
pure  and  exquisite  statues.  It  may 
be  suspected  that  the  Carthaginians, 
dwelling  in  the  rough  and  warlike 
Africa,  revolted  against  the  softness 
and  effeminacy  of  the  old  Phoenician 
cult,  and  substituted  Tanath  for  Ash- 
toreth,  to  accentuate  their  protest 
against  religious  sensualism.! 

140.  It  seems  to  be  certain  that  in 
Phoenicia  itself,  and  in  the  adjacent 
parts  of   Syria,  the  worship  of  Ash- 
toreth  was  from  the  first  accompanied 
with   licentious    rites.     As   at    Baby- 
lon, $   so   in   Phoenicia  and  Syria — at 
Byblus,    at   Ascalon,    at   Aphaca,    at 
Hierapolis  § — the   cult   of   the   great 
Nature-goddess  a  tended  to  encourage 
dissoluteness  in  the  relations  between 
the   sexes,  and  even   to  sanctify  im- 
purities of  the  most  abominable  de- 
scription." ||     Even  in  Africa,  where 
an   original    severity   of   morals    had 
prevailed,  and  Tanith  had  been  wor- 
shiped "  as  a  virgin  with  martial  attri- 
butes," and  with  "  severe,  not  licen- 
tious,   rites,"  1F   corruption    gradually 
crept  in ;  and  by  the  time  of  Augus- 
tine **   the  Carthaginian  worship   of 
the  "  celestial  goddess  "  was  charac- 
terized by  the  same  impurity  as  that 
of  A'ihtoreth  in  Phoenicia  and  Syria. 

141.  Another  fearful   blot   on    the 
religion  of  the   Phoenicians,  and  one 
which  belongs   to  Carthage  quite  as 
much  as  to  the  mother-country,! t   is 


*  In  a  bilingual  inscription  given  by 
Gesenius,  the  Phoenician  Abed-Tanath  be- 
comes in  the  Greek  "  Artemidorus."  Anaitis 
or  Tanata  is  often  called  "  the  Persian  Arte- 
mis." (See  Plutarch,  "Vit.  Lucull."  p.  24; 
Bochart,  "  Geographia  Sacra,"  iv.  19;  Pausan. 
iii.  16,  §  6,  etc.) 

t  See  Davis's  "  Carthage,"  p.  264;  Hunter, 
"  Religion  des  Karthager,"  c.  6. 

J  Herod,  i.  199. 

§  Herod,  i.  105 ;  Lucian,  "  De  Dea  Syra,"  c. 
ix. ;  Euseb.  "Vit.  Constantin.  Magni,"  iii.  55. 

||  Twistleton,  in  Smith's  "Dictionary  of 
the  Bible,"  vol.  ii.  p.  866. 

IT  Kenrick,  "  Phoenicia,"  p.  305. 

**  Augustine,  "  De  Civitate  Dei,"  5i.  4. 

tt  See  Diod.  Sic.  xx.  14,  65 ;  Justin,  xviii. 
6;  Sil.  Ital.  iv.  765-768;  Dionys.  Hal.  i.  38; 
etc.  Compare  Gesenius,  "  Script.  Phocn. 
Mon."  pp.  448,449,453;  and  Davis,  "  Car- 
thage," pp.  296,  297. 


the  systematic  offering  of  human  vic- 
tims, as  expiatory  sacrifices,  to  El  and 
other  gods.  The  ground  of  this  hor- 
rible superstition  is  to  be  found  in 
the  words  addressed  by  Balak  to  Ba- 
laam * — "  Wherewith  shall  I  come  be- 
fore the  Lord,  and  bow  myself  before 
the  high  God  ?  Shall  I  come  before 
Him  with  burnt  offerings,  with  calves 
of  a  year  old?  Will  the  Lord  be 
pleased  with  thousands  of  rams,  or 
with  ten  thousands  of  rivers  of  oil? 
Shall  I  give  my  firstborn  for  my  trans- 
gression, the  fruit  of  my  body  for  the 
sin  of  my  soul?"  As  Philo  Byblius 
expresses  it,f  "  It  was  customary 
among  the  ancients,  in  times  of  great 
calamity  and  danger,  that  the  rulers 
of  the  city  or  nation  should  offer  up 
the  best  beloved  of  their  children,  as 
an  expiatory  sacrifice  to  the  aveng- 
ing deities :  and  these  victims  were 
slaughtered  mystically."  The  Phoe- 
nicians were  taught  that,  once  upon  a 
time,  the  god  El  himself,  under  the 
pressure  of  extraordinary  peril,  had 
taken  his  only  son,  adorned  him  with 
royal  attire,  placed  him  as  a  victim 
upon  an  altar,  and  slain  him  with  his 
own  hand.  Thenceforth,  it  could  not 
but  be  the  duty  of  rulers  to  follow  the 
divine  example  set  them  ;  and  even 
private  individuals,  when  beset  by 
difficulties,  might  naturally  apply  the 
lesson  to  themselves,  and  offer  up 
their  children  to  appease  the  divine 
anger.  We  have  only  too  copious  ev- 
idence that  both  procedures  were  in 
vogue  among  the  Phoenicians.  Por- 
phyry declares?  that  the  Phoenician 
history  was  full  of  instances,  in  which 
that  people,  when  suffering  under 
great  calamity  from  war,  or  pestilence, 
or  drought,  chose  by  public  vote  one'of 
those  most  dear  to  them,  and  sacri- 
ficed him  to  Saturn."  Two  hundred 
noble  youths  were  offered  on  a  single 
occasion  at  Carthage,  after  the  victory 
of  Agathocles.§  Hamilcar,  it  is  possi- 
ble, offered  himself  as  a  victim  on  the 

*  Micah  vi.  6,  7. 
t   Philo  Bybl.,  c.  vi.  §  3. 
|  "  De  Abstinentia,"  ii.  56. 
§  Lactant.    "  Inst."  i.  21,  quoting  Pescen- 
nius  Festus. 


58    [136] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD, 


entire  defeat  of  his  army  by  Gelo.:* 
When  Tyre  found  itself  unable  to  re- 
sist the  assault  of  Alexander  the 
Great,  the  proposition  was  made,  but 
overruled,  to  sacrifice  a  boy  to  Sat- 
urn, f  Every  year,  at  Carthage,  there 
was  at  least  one  occasion,  on  which 
human  victims,  chosen  by  lot,  were 
publicly  offered  to  expiate  the  sins  of 
the  nation.  $ 

142.  And  private  sacrifices  of  this 
sort  went  hand  in  hand  with  public 
ones.     Diodorus  tells  us,§  that  in  the 
temple   of   Saturn   at   Carthage,    the 
brazen  image  of  the  god  stood  with 
outstretched   hands    to    receive    the 
bodies    of    children    offered    to    it. 
Mothers  brought  their  infants  in  their 
arms ;    and,  as   any  manifestation  of 
reluctance  would  have  made  the  sac- 
rifice unacceptable  to  the  god,  stilled 
them  by  their  caresses  till  the  mo- 
ment when  they  were  handed  over  to 
the  image,  which  was  so  contrived  as 
to  consign  whatever  it  received  to  a 
glowing  furnace  underneath   it.     In- 
scriptions found  at   Carthage   record 
the     offering     of     such     sacrifices.  || 
They  continued  even  after  the  Roman 
conquest ;  and  at  length  the  procon- 
sul  Tiberius,  in    order  to  put   down 
the    practice,  hanged   the    priests   of 
these  bloody  rites  on  the  trees  of  their 
own  sacred  grove. If     The  public  ex- 
hibitions of  the  sacrifice  thenceforth 
ceased,  but  in  secret  they  still  contin- 
ued down  to  the  time  of  Tertullian.** 

143.  The  Phoenicians  were  not  idol- 
aters, in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word ; 
that  is  to  say,  they  did  not  worship 
images  of  their  deities.     In  the  tem- 
ple of  Melkarth  at  Gades  there  was 
no  material  emblem  of  the  »god  at  all, 
with  the  exception  of  an  ever-burning 
fire,  ff     Elsewhere,    conical     stones, 


*  See  the  story  in  Herodotus  (vii.  167). 

t  Quint.  Curt.  "  Vit.  Alex.  Magn."  iv.  15. 

j  Silius  Ital.  iv.  765-768. 

§  Diod.  Sic.  xx.  14. 

||  Gesenius,  "  Script.  Phoen.  Mon.,"  pp. 
448,  449.  An  inscription  given  by  Dr.  Davis 
("  Carthage  and  her  Remains,"  pp.  296,  297) 
refers  to  the  public  annual  sacrifice. 

I  Tertull.  "  Apologia/'  c.  ix. 

**  Ibid. 

\  t  Silius  Ital.  ii.  45. 


called  batyli,  were  dedicated  to  the 
various  deities,*  and  received  a  cer- 
tain qualified  worship,  being  regarded 
as  possessed  of  a  certain  mystic  virt- 
ue, f  These  stones  seem  occasion- 
ally to  have  been  replaced  by  pillars, 
which  were  set  up  in  front  of  the  tem- 
ples, and  had  sacrifices  offered  to 
them.i  The  pillars  might  be  of 
metal,  of  stone,  or  of  wood,  but  were 
most  commonly  of  the  last  named 
material,  and  were  called  by  the  Jews 
asherahs,  "  uprights."  §  ,  At  festive 
seasons  they  seem  to  have  been 
adorned  with  boughs  of  trees,  flowers, 
and  ribbons,  and  to  have  formed  the 
central  object  of  a  worship  which  was 
of  a  sensual  and  debasing  character. 
An  emblem  common  in  the  Assyrian 
sculptures  is  thought  to  give  a  good 
idea  of  the  ordinary  appearance  on 
such  occasions  of  these  asherahs. 

144.  Worship  was  conducted  publicly 
in  the  mode  usual  in  ancient  times,  and 
comprised  praise,  prayer  and  sacrifice. 
The*  victims  offered  were  ordinarily 
animals, ||  though,  as  already  shown, 
human  sacrifices  were  not  infrequent. 
It  was  usual  to  consume  the  vic- 
tims entirely  upon  the  altars. ^[  Liba- 
ations  of  wine  were  copiously  poured 
forth  in  honor  of  the  chief  deities,** 
and  incense  was  burnt  in  lavish  pro- 


*  Philo  Bybl.  c.  iv.  §  2 ;  Damasc.  ap  Phot. 
"  Bibliothec."  p.  1065;  Hesych.  ad  voc. 
TicurvAog.  It  has  been  proposed  to  explain 
the  word  btztulus  as  equivalent  to  Beth-el, 
"  House  of  God,"  and  to  regard  the  Phoeni- 
cians «s  believing  that  a  deity  dwelt  in  the 
stone.  (Kenrick,  "  Phoenicia,"  p.  323,  note 

t  The  original  batuli  were  perhaps  aero- 
liths,  which  were  regarded  as  divine,  since 
they  had  fallen  from  the  sky. 

\  Philo  Byblius,  c.  iii.  §  "7-  On  the  pillar- 
worship  of  the  Phoenicians,  see  Bunsen, 
"  Egypt's  Place  in  Univ.  History,"  vol.  iv.  pp. 
208-212. 

§  Asherah  is  commonly  translated  by 
"grove"  in  the  Authorized  Version;  but 
its  true  character  has  been  pointed  out  by 
many  critics.  (See  "  Speaker's  Commen- 
tary," vol.  i.  pp.  416,  417  ;  "  Ancient  Mon- 
archies," vol.  ii.  p.  8  ;  2cl  edition.) 

||  Lucian,  "  De  Dea  Syra,"  §  49. 

If  Gesenius,  "  Script.  Phosn.  Mon."  pp.  446, 
447  ;  Movers,  "  Das  Opferwesen  der  Kartha- 
ger,"  p.  71,  etc. 

**  Philo  Bybl.  c.  iv.  §  i. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[137]    59 


fusion.*  Occasionally  an  attempt 
was  made  to  influence  the  deity  in- 
voked by  loud  and  prolonged  cries, 
and  even  by  self-inflicted  wounds  and 
mutilation. f  Frequent  festivals  were 
held,  especially  one  at  the  vernal  equi- 
nox, when  sacrifices  were  made  on 
the  largest  scale,  and  a  vast  concourse 
of  persons  was  gathered  together  at 
the  chief  temples. $  Altogether  the 
religion  of  the  Phoenicians,  while 
possessing  some  redeeming  points, 
as  the  absence  of  images  and  deep 
sense  of  sin  which  led  them  to  sacri- 
fice what  was  nearest  and  dearest  to 
them  to  appease  the  divine  anger, 
must  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  lowest 
and  most  debasing  of  the  forms  of 
belief  and  worship  prevalent  in  the 
ancient  world,  combining  as  it  did 
impurity  with  cruelty,  the  sanction  of 
licentiousness  with  the  requirement  of 
bloody  rites,  revolting  to  the  con- 
science, and  destructive  of  any  right 
apprehension  of  the  true  idea  of  God. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   RELIGION   OF   THE    ETRUSCANS. 

"  Hetrusci,  religione  imbuti." — Cic.  De  Div. 
1.42. 

145.  THE  religion  of  the  Etrus- 
cans, or  Tuscans,  like  that  of  the 
Phoenicians  and  Carthaginians,  is 
known  to  us  chiefly  from  the  notices 
of  it  which  have  come  down  ,to  us 
in  the  works  of  the  classical  writ- 
ers, Greek  and  Latin.  It  has,  how- 
ever, the  advantage  of  being  illustrated 
more  copiously  than  the  Phoenician  by 
monuments  and  other  works  of  art 
found  in  the  country,  the  productions 
of  native  artists — works  which  in 
some  respects  give  us  a  considerable 
insight  into  its  inner  character.  On 
the  other  hand,  but  little  light  is 
thrown  upon  it  by  the  Etruscan  in- 

*  Virg.  "^En."i.  415. 

t  i  King  xviii.  26,  28  ;  Lucian,  "  De  Dea 
Syra,"  §  50 ;  Plutarch,  "  De  Superstitione," 
p.  170,0. 

J  Lucian,  "  De  Dea  Syra,"  §  49. 


criptions,  partly  because  these  inscrip- 
tions are  almost  all  of  a  single  type, 
being  short  legends  upon  .  tombs, 
partly  from  the  fact  that  the  Etruscan 
language  has  defied  all  the  efforts 
made  to  interpret  it,  and  still  remains, 
for  the  most  part,  an  insoluble,  or  at 
any  rate  an  unsolved,  problem.  We 
are  thus  without  any  genuine  Etrus- 
can statements  of  their  own  views 
upon  religious  subjects,  and  are 
forced  to  rely  mainly  upon  the  re- 
ports of  foreigners,  who  looked  upon 
the  system  only  from  without,  and 
are  not  likely  to'have  fully  understood 
it.  It  is  a  further  disadvantage  that 
our  informants  write  at  a  time  when 
the  Etruscans  had  long  ceased  to  be 
a  nation,  and  when  the  people,  hav- 
ing been  subjected  for  centuries  to 
foreign  influences,  had  in  all  proba- 
bility modified  their  religious  views 
in  many  important  points. 

146.  There  seems  to  be  no  doubt 
that  their  religion,  whatever  it  was, 
occupied  a  leading  position  in  the 
thoughts  and  feelings  of  the  Etruscan 
nation.  "  With  Etruria,"  says  a  mod- 
ern writer,  "  religion  was  an  all-per- 
vading principle — the  very  atmosphere 
of  her  existence — a  leaven  operating 
on  the  entire  mass  of  society,  a  con- 
stant pressure  ever  felt  in  one  form 
or  other,  a  power  admitting  no  rival, 
all-ruling,  all-regulating,  all-requir- 
ing.* Livy  calls  the  Etruscans  "  a 
race  which,  inasmuch  as  it  excelled 
in  the  art  of  religious  observances, 
was  more  devoted  to  them  than  any 
other  nation."  f  Arnobius  says  that 
Etruria  was  "  the  creator  and  par- 
ent of  superstition."!  The  very 
name  of  the  nation,  Tusci,  was  de- 
rived by  some  from  a  root,  thuein^ 
"to  sacrifice,"  or  "make  offerings 
to  the  gods  "  § — as  if  that  were  the 
chief  occupation  of  the  people. 
While  famous  among  the  nations  of 


*  Dennis,  "  Cities  and  Cemeteries  of  Etru- 
ria," vol.  i.  Introduction,  p.  xlix. 

t  "  Gens  ante  omnes  alias  eo  magis  dedita 
religionibus,  quod  excelleret  arte  colendi 
eas,"  Liv.  v.  i. 

\  Arnob.  "  Adv.  Genres,"  vii. 

§  Servius,  "  Comment,  in  Virg.  ^n."  x.  1. 
257. 


60    [138] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


antiquity  for  their  art,  their  commerce, 
and  their  warlike  qualities,  the  Etrus- 
cans were  above  all  else  celebrated 
for  their  devotion  to  their  religion, 
and  for  "  the  zeal  and  scrupulous 
care  with  which  they  practiced  the 
various  observances  of  its  rites  and 
ceremonies."  * 

147.  The  objects  of  worship  were 
twofold,  including  (i)  Deities  proper, 
and  (2)  the  Lares,  or  ancestral  spirits 
of  each  family.      The  deities  proper 
may  be  divided  into  three   classes  : 
first,    those    whose    sphere   was    the 
heaven,   or  some  portion   of  it ;  sec- 
ondly,   those     who    belonged    more 
properly  to  earth;  and  thirdly,  those 
of    the    infernal    regions,    or    nether 
world,  which  held  a  prominent  place 
in  the  system,  and  was  almost  as  much 
in  the  thoughts  of  the  people  as  their 
"  Amend  "  was  in  the  thoughts  of  the 
Egyptians. f 

148.  The    chief     deities     of    the 
Heaven  were  the  following  five  :  Tina, 
or  Tinia,  Cupra,   Menrva,   Usil    and 
Losna.     Tina,  or  Tinia,  whd  was  rec- 
ognized as  the  chief  god,$  and  whom 
the  Greeks  compared  to  their  Zeus, 
and    the    Romans    to    their   Jupiter, 
seems    to   have   been   originally   the 
heaven    itself,   considered    in    its  en- 
tirety, and  thus  corresponded  both  in 
name  and  nature  to  the  Tien  of  the 
Chinese,  with  whom  it  may  be  sus- 
pected that  the  Etruscans  had  some 
ethnic  affinity.     Tina  is  said  to  have 
had  a  special  temple  dedicated  to  his 
honor  in  every  Etruscan  city,  and  in 
every  such  city  one  of  the  gates  bore 
his  name.§     He  appears  to  have  been 
sometimes  worshiped  under  the    ap- 
pellation of  Summanus,  which  perhaps 
meant    "the    supreme   god."||      We 
must  not,  however,  take  this  term  as 
indicative    of   a   latent    monotheism, 
whereof  there  is  no  trace  in  the  Etrus- 

*  Smith,  "  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman 
Geography,"  vol.  i.  p.  865. 

t  See  above,  p.  33. 

t  Dennis,  "  Cities  and  Cemeteries,"  vol.  i. 
"  Introduction,"  p.  i  ;  Taylor,  "  Etruscan 
Researches,"  p.  132. 

§  Servius,  "  Comment  m  Virg.  ^En."  i.  422. 

il  Max  Miiller,  "  Science  of  Religion,"  p. 
376. 


can  religion,  but  only  as  a  title  of 
honor,  or  at  most  as  a  recognition  of 
a  superiority  in  rank  and  dignity  on 
the  part  of  this  god,  who  was  primus 
inter  pares,  the  presiding  spirit  in  a 
conclave  of  equals. 

149.  Next  to  Tina  came  Cupra,  a 
goddess,  who    appears   to  have   also 
borne  the  name  of  Thalna  orThana.* 
The    Greeks   compared  her  to  their 
Hera,  and  the  Romans  to  their  Juno, 
or  sometimes  to  their  Diana,  who  was 
originally  the  same  deity.     Like  Tina, 
Cupra  had  a  temple  in  every  Etruscan 
city,  and  a  gate  named  after  her.f     It 
is   thought   by  some   that  she  was  a 
personification  of  light,  or  day  ;  $  but 
this  is  uncertain.     Her  name,  Thana, 
looks  like  a  mere  variant  of  Tina,  and 
would  seem  to  make  her  a  mere  fem- 
inine form  of  the  sky-god,  his  comple- 
ment and  counterpart,  standing  to  him 
as  Amente  to  Ammon  in  the  Egyp- 
tian,   or   as    Luna    to    Lunus   in  the 
Roman  mythology.     A    similar  rela- 
tion is  found  to  have  subsisted  be- 
tween  the    two   chief   deities   of  the 
Etruscan  nether  world. 

150.  The  third  among  the  celestial 
deities  was  Menrva,  or  Menrfa,  out  of 
whom   the    Romans  made   their  Mi- 
nerva.    She  enjoyed  the  same  privi- 
leges in  the  Etruscan  cities  as  Tina 
and    Cupra,   having  her  own  temple 
and  her  own  gate  in  each  of  them.§ 
Mr.  Isaac  Taylor  believes  that  origin- 
ally she  represented  the  half  light  of 
the  morning   and  evening,  and  even 
ventures    to  suggest    that   her   name 
signified  "  the  red  heaven,"   and  re- 
ferred to  the  flush  of  the  sky  at  dawn 
and   sunset.  ||      A  slight  confirmation 
is  afforded  to  this  view  by   the  fact 
that  we  sometimes  find  two  Menrvas 
represented  in  a  single  Etruscan  work 
of  art. IF     But  we  scarcely  possess  suf- 
ficient materials  for  determining  the 


*The  name  Cupra  is  known  to  us  only 
from  Strabo  ("Geograph."  v.  p.  241). 
Thalna  is  found  on  Etruscan  monuments. 

t  Servius,.!.  s.  c. 

J  Gerhard,  "  Gottheiten  der  Etrusker,"  p. 
40;  Taylor,  "Etruscan  Researches,"  p.  142. 

§  Servius,  1.  s.  c. 

||  "  Etruscan  Researches,"  p.  137. 

TF/^.p.  138. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[130]    61 


real  original  character  of  this  deity.1 
It  was  probably  foreign  influence  that 
brought  her  ultimately  into  that  close 
resemblance  which  she  bears  to  Mi- 
nerva and  Athene'  on  the  mirrors  and 
vases,  where  she  is  represented  as 
armed  and  bearing  the  aegis.* 

151.  Usil  and  Losna,  whom  we  have 
ventured  to  join   with  Tina,   Cupra, 
and  Menrva  as  celestial  deities,  ap- 
pear to  nave  been  simply  the  Sun  and 
the  Moon,  objects  of  worship  to  so 
many    ancient    nations.      Usil    was 
identified    with    the    Greek    Apollo 
(called  Aplu  by  the  Etruscans),  and 
was  represented  as  a  youth  with  bow 
and  arrows. f      Losna  had  the  cres- 
cent for  her  emblem, $  and  was  fig- 
ured nearly  as  Diana  by  the  Romans.§ 

152.  Next  to  Usil  and  Losna  may 
be  placed  in  a  group  the  three  ele- 
mental gods,  Sethlans,  the  god  of  fire, 
identified  by  the  Etruscans  themselves 
with  the  Greek  Hephaistos  and  the 
Latin   Vulcan ;    Nethuns,  the  water- 
god,  probably  the  same  as  Neptunus  ; 
and  Phuphlans,  the  god  of  earth  and 
all  earth's  products,  who  is  well  com- 
pared with  Dionysus  and  Bacchus.  || 
Phuphlans  was  the  special  deity  of 
Pupluna,  or  (as  the  Romans  called  it) 
Populonia.^l     He  seems  to  have  been 
called  also  Vortumnus  or  Volturntis  ;** 
and  in  this  aspect  he  had  a  female 
counterpart,  Voltumna,  whose  temple 
was  the  place  of  meeting  where  the 
princes  of  Etruria  discussed  the  af- 
fairs of  the  Confederation. tt 

153.  Another  group  of  three  con- 
sists of  Turan,  Thesan,   and  Turms, 
native  Etruscan  deities,  as  it  would 
seem,     corresponding  more    or    less 
closely  to   the   Aphrodite,   Eos,   and 


*  Dennis,  "Cities  and  Cemeteries,"  vol.  i. 
Introduction,  p.  li. 

t  Taylor,  "Etruscan  Researches,"  p.  143. 

J  Lanzi,  "  Saggio  della  Lingua  Etrusca," 
vol.  ii.  p.  76. 

§  Dennis,  "  Cities  and  Cemeteries,"  vol.  i. 
Introduction,  p.  liv. 

H  Taylor,  "  Etruscan  Researches,"  p.  141  ; 
Smith,  "  Diet,  of  Greek  and  Rom.  Antiqui- 
ties," vol.  i.  p.  865. 

'IT  Dennis,  "  Cities  and  Cemeteries,"  vol.  ii. 
p.  242. 

**  Ibid.  vol.  i.  Introduction,  p.  liii. 

Jt  Liv.  iv.  23,  61 ;  v.  17,  etc. 


Hermes  of  the  Greeks,  and  the  Ve- 
nus, Aurora,  and  Mercurius  of  the 
Romans.  Of  these  Turan  is  the  most 
frequently  found,  but  chiefly  in  sub- 
jects taken  from  the  Greek  mythol- 
ogy, while  Thesan  occurs  the 'least 
often.  According  to  one  view,  the 
name  Turms  is  the  mere  Etruscan 
mode  of  writing  the  Greek  word 
Hermes,*  the  true  native  name  having 
been  Camillus  or  Kamil.t  It  does 
not  appear  that  any  of  these  three 
gods  was  much  worshiped  by  the 
Etruscans.  They  figured  in  the  my- 
thology, but  lay  almost  outside  tlie 
religion. 

154.  The  main  character  in  which 
the  gods   of  heaven  and  earth  were 
recognized  by  the  Etruscans  was  that 
of   rulers,  signifying,  and  sometimes 
executing,  their  will  by  means  of  thun- 
der and  lightning.      Nine  great  gods, 
known    as  the   Novensiles,  were  be- 
lieved to  have  the  power  of  hurling 
thunderbolts,  and  were  therefore  held 
in   special   honor.$     Of   these    nine, 
Tinia,  Cupra,  Menrva,  and  Sethlans, 
were  undoubtedly  four.     Summanus 
and    Vejovis,    who     are    sometimes 
spoken  of  as  thundering  gods,§  seem 
to    be    mere    names   or    aspects   of 
Tinia.      The    Etruscans    recognized 
twelve    sorts    of    thunderbolts,    and 
ascribed,  we  are  told,  to  Tinia  three 
of  them. || 

155.  But  it  was  to  the  unseen  world 
beneath  the  earth,  the  place  to  which 
men  went  after  death,  and  where  the 
souls  of  their  ancestors  resided,  that 
the  Etruscans  devoted  the  chief  por- 
tion   of  their  religious  thought ;  and 
with  this  were  connected  the  bulk  of 
their    religious    observances.      Over 
the    dark   realms   of   the  dead  ruled 
Mantus  and  Mania,  king  and  queen 
of  Hades,  the  former  represented  as 
an    old    man,  wearing  a  crown,  and 
with  wings  on  his  shoulders,  and  bear- 


*  Taylor,  "Etruscan  Researches,"  p.  149. 

t  So'  Callimachus  ap.  Serv.  in  Virg.  yEn. 
xi.  1.  543. 

\  Varro,  "  De  Ling.  Lat."  v.  74 ;  Plin.  "  H. 
N."  ii.  53;  Manilius  ap.  Arnob.  "Adv. 
Gentes,"  iii.  38. 

§  Plin.  1.  s.  c. ;  Amm.  Marc.  xvii.  10,  §  2. 

ll  Senec.  "  Nat.  Quasst."  ii.  41. 


62    [140] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


ing  in  his  hands  sometimes  a  torch, 
sometimes  two  or  three  large  nails, 
which  are  thought  to  indicate  "  the  in- 
evitable character  of  his  decrees."* 
Intimately  connected  with  these  dei- 
ties, their  prime  minister  and  most 
active  agent,  cruel,  hideous,  half  hu- 
man, half  animal,  the  chief  figure  in 
almost  all  the  representations  of  the 
lower  world,  is  the  demon,  Charun,  in 
name  no  doubt  indentical  with  the 
Stygian  ferryman  of  the  Greeks,  but 
in  character  so  different  that  it  has 
even  been  maintained  that  there  is  no 
analogy  between  them.t  Charun  is 
"  generally  represented  as  a  squalid 
and  hideous  old  man  with  flaming 
eyes  and  savage  aspect ;  but  he  has, 
moreover,  the  ears,  and  often  the 
tusks  of  a  brute,"  with  (sometimes) 
"  negro  features  and  complexion,  and 
frequently  wings,"  $  so  that  he  "  an- 
swers well,  cloven  feet  excepted,  to 
the  modern  conception  of  the  devil." 
His  brow  is  sometimes  bound  round 
by  snakes  ;  at  other  times  he  has  a 
snake  twisted  round  his  arm ;  and  he 
bears  in  his  hands  almost  universally 
a  huge  mallet  or  hammer,  upraised, 
as  if  he  were  about  to  deal  a  death- 
stroke.  When  death  is  being  inflicted 
by  man,  he  stands  by,  "  grinning  with 
savage  delight ; "  §  when  he  comes 
naturally,  he  is  almost  as  well  pleased  ; 
he  holds  the  horse  on  which  the  de- 
parted soul  is  to  take  its  journey  to 
the  other  world,  bids  the  spirit  mount, 
leads  away  the  horse  by  the  bridle  or 
drives  it  before  him,  and  thus  con- 
ducts the  deceased  into  the  grim 
kingdom  of  the  dead.||  In  that  king- 
dom he  is  one  of  the  tormentors  of 
guilty  souls,  whom  he  strikes  with  his 
mallet,  or  with  a  sword,  while  they 
kneel  before  him  and  implore  for 
mercy.  Various  attendant  demons 
and  furies,  some  male,  some,  female, 


*  Dennis,  "Cities  and  Cemeteries,"  vol.  i. 
Introduction,  p.  Ivi. 

:tAmbrosch,  "  De  Charonte  Etrusco," 
quoted  by  Dennis,  vol.  ii.  p.  206. 

t  Dennis,  "  Cities  and  Cemeteries,"  vol.  ii. 
p.  206. 

§  Ibid.  p.  207. 

H  Dennis,  "  Cities  and  Cemeteries,"  pp.  193, 
194. 


seem  to  act  under  his  orders,  and  in- 
flict such  tortures  as  he  is  pleased  to 
prescribe. 

156.  It  must  be  supposed  that  the 
Etruscan  conceived    of   a   judgment 
after   death,  of  an  apportionment  of 
rewards  and  punishments  according 
to  desert.*     But  it  is  curious  that  the 
representations  in  the  tombs  give  no 
clear  evidence  of  any  judicial  process, 
containing  nothing  analogous  to  the 
Osiricl  trial,  the  weighing  of  the  soul, 
the  sentence,  and  the  award  accord- 
ingly, which  are  so  conspicuous  on  the 
monuments  of  Egypt.     Good  and  evil 
spirits   seem  to  contend  for  the  pos- 
session of  souls  in  the  nether  world  ; 
furies  pursue  some,  and  threaten  them 
or  torment  them  ;  good  genii  protect 
others  and  save  them  from  the  dark 
demons,  who   would  fain  drag  them 
to  the  place  of  punishment.t     Souls 
are  represented  in  a  state  which  seems 
to  be  intended  for  one  of  ideal  happi- 
ness, banqueting,  or  hunting,  or  play- 
ing at  games,  and  otherwise  enjoying 
themselves :  $  but  the  grounds  of  the 
two  different  conditions  in  which  the 
departed  spirits  exist  are  not  clearly 
set  forth,  and  it  is  analogy  rather  than 
strict  evidence  which  leads  us  to  the 
conclusion  that  desert  is  the  ground 
on   which  the  happiness  and  misery 
are  distributed. 

157.  Besides  Charun  and  his  name- 
less attendant  demons  and  furies,  the 
Etruscan  remains  give  evidence  of  a 
belief  in  a  certain  small  number  of 
genii,  or  spirits,  having  definite  names, 
and  a  more  or  less  distinct  and  pecul- 
iar   character.      One    of    the     most 
clearly  marked  of  these  is  Vanth,  or 
Death,  who  appears  in  several  of  the 
sepulchral  scenes,  either  standing  by 
the  door  of  an  open  tomb,  or  prompt- 
ing the    slaughter   of  a  prisoner,  or 
otherwise  encouraging   carnage    and 
destruction.§      Another     is    Kulmu, 


*  So  Dennis  and  others  ;  but  there  is  a  want 
of  distinct  evidence  upon  the  point. 

t  Dennis,  "  Cities  and  Cemeteries,"  vol.  ii. 
pp.  193-198. 

\  Dennis,  "  Cities  and  Cemeteries,"  vol.  i. 
pp.  444-446- 

§  Taylor,  "  Etruscan  Researches,"  pp.  106- 
102.  (For  the  scenes  referred  to,  see  Micali, 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[141]    63 


"god  of  the  tomb,"  who  bears  the 
fatal  shears  in  one  hand  and  a 
funeral  torch  in  the  other,  and  opens 
the  door  of  the  sepulchre  that  it  may 
receive  into  it  a  fresh  inmate.*  A 
third  being  of  the  same  class  is 
Nathuns,  a  sort  of  male  fury,  rep- 
resented with  tusk-like  fangs  and 
hair  standing  on  end,  while  in  either 
hand  he  grasps  a  serpent  by  the 
middle,  which  he  shakes  over 
avengers,  in  order  to  excite  them  to 
the  highest  pitch  of  frenzy,  f 

158.  In  their  worship  the  Etrus- 
cans sought,  first  of  all  and  especially, 
to  know  the  will  of  the  gods,  which 
they  believed  to.be  signified  to  man 
in  three  principal  ways.  These  were 
thunder  and  lightning,  which  they 
ascribed  to  the  direct  action  of  the 
heavenly  powers  ;  the  flight  of  birds, 
which  they  supposed  to  be  subject  to 
divine  guidance  ;  and  certain  appear- 
ances in  the  entrails  of  victims 
offered  in  sacrifice,  which  they  also 
regarded  as  supernaturally  induced  or 
influenced.  To  interpret  these  indi- 
cations of  the  divine  will,  it  was  nec- 
essary to  have  a  class  of  persons 
trained  in  the  traditional  knowledge 
of  the  signs  in  question,  and  skilled  to 
give  a  right  explanation  of  them  to 
all  inquirers.  Hence  the  position  of 
the  priesthood  in  Etruria,  which  was 
"  an  all-dominant  hierarchy,  maintain- 
ing its  sway  by  an  arrogant  exclusive 
claim  to  intimate  acquaintance  with 
the  will  of  heaven,  and  the  decrees  of 
fate."  $  The  Etruscan  priests  were 
not,  like  the  Egyptian,  the  teachers  of 
the  people,  the  inculcators  of  a  high 
morality,  or  the  expounders  of  esoter- 
ic doctrines  on  the  subjects  of  man's 
relation  to  God,  his  true  aim  in  life, 
and  his  ultimate  destiny  ;  they  were 
soothsaj'ers,§  who  sought  to  expound 


"  Monument!  Inediti,"  pi.  Ix. ;  and  Des 
Vergers,  "  L'Etrurie  et  les  Etrusques,"  pi. 
xxi.).  *  Ibid.  p.  94. 

t  Taylor,  "  Etruscan  Researches,"  p.  112. 

\  Dennis,  "  Cities  and  Cemeteries,"  vol.  i. 
Introduction,  p.  xxxix. 

§  Cic.  "  De  Divinatione,"  i.  p.  41,  42 ; 
Senec.  "  Nat.  Onaest."  ii.  32  ;  Diod.  Sic.  v..p. 
316 ;  Dior.ys.  Hal,  ix.  p.  563 ;  Aulus  Cell.  iv. 
5  ;  Lucan,  >f  Phars."  i.  i,  587,  etc. 


the  future,  immediate  or  remote,  to 
warn  men  against  coming  dangers,  to 
suggest  modes  of  averting  the  divine 
anger,  and  thus  to  save  men  from 
evils  which  would  otherwise  have 
come  upon  them  unawares  and  ruined 
or,  at  any  rate,  greatly  injured  them. 
Men  were  taught  to  observe  the  signs 
in  the  sky,  and  the  appearance  and 
flight  of  birds,  the  sounds  which  they 
uttered,  their  position  at  the  time, 
and  various  other  particulars ;  they 
were  bidden  to  note  whatever  came 
in  their  way  that  seemed  to  them  un- 
usual or  abnormal,  and  to  report  all 
to  the  priests,  who  thereupon  pro- 
nounced what  the  signs  observed  por- 
tended, and  either  announced  an  in- 
evitable doom,*  or  prescribed  a  mode 
whereby  the  doom  might  be  postponed 
or  averted.  Sometimes  the  signs  re- 
ported were  declared  to  affect  merely 
individuals  ;  but  frequently  the  word 
went  forth  that  danger  was  portended 
to  the  state  ;  and  then  it  was  for  the 
priesthood  to  determine  at  once  the 
nature  and  extent  of  the  danger,  and 
also  the  measures  to  be  adopted  under 
the  circumstances.  Sacrifices  on  a 
vast  scale  or  of  an  unusual  character 
were  commonly  commanded  in  such 
cases,  even  human  victims  being  oc- 
casionally offered  to  the  infernal  dei- 
ties, Mantus  and  Mania, t  whose 
wrath  it  was  impossible  to  appease  in 
any  less  fearful  way.  Certain  books 
in  the  possession  of  the  hierarchy, 
ascribed  to  a  half  divine,  half  human 
personage,  named  Tages,$  and  hand- 
ed down  from  a  remote  antiquity,  con- 
tained the  system  of  divination  winch 
the  priests  followed,  and  guided  them 


*  The  Etruscans  recognized  a  power  of 
F"ate,  superior  to  the  great  gods  themselves, 
Tinia  and  the  others,  residing  in  certain  "  I)i 
Involuti,"  or  "  Di  Superiores,"  who  were 
the  rulers  of  both  gods  and  men  (Senec. 
"  Nat.  Qucest."  ii.4i). 

t  Especially  to  Mania  (Macrob.  "  Satur- 
nalia," i.  7).  Human  sacrifices  are  thought 
to  be  represented  in  the  Etruscan  remains 
(Dennis,  "Cities  and  Cemeteries,"  vol.  ii.  pp. 
190,  191). 

.  t  Lydus,  "De  Ostentis,"§  27  ;  Cic.  "  De 
Div."  ii.  23  ;  Ovid.  "Metamorph."  xv.  553- 
559,  etc. 


6,4     [142]  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


in    their    expositions     and     require- 
'ments. 

159.  Among      sacrificial      animals 
were  included  the  bull,  the    ass,   and 
perhaps  the  wolf,*  though  this  is  dis- 
puted.    The  victim,   brought    by   an 
individual  citizen,  was  always  offered 
by    a   priest,    and    libations   usually 
accompanied  the  sacrifice.    Unbloody 
offerings  were  also  not  unfrequently 
presented,  and  were  burnt  upon  the 
altar,  like  the  victims. f 

160.  A  general  survey  of  the  Etrus- 
can remains  has  convinced  the  most 
recent  inquirers,  that  the  public  wor- 
ship  of    the   gods    in    the    temples, 
which  were  to  be  found  in  all  Etrus- 
can cities,  by  sacrifice,   libation,  and 
adoration,  played   but   a   very   small 
part  in  the  religious  life,  of  the  nation. 
"  The  true  temples  of  the  Etruscans," 
it  has   been   observed,    "  were   their 
tombs."  $     Practically,   the   real   ob- 
jects of  their  worship  were  the  Lares, 
or   spirits  of   their   ancestors.     Each 
house  probably   had    its    lararium^ 
where  the  master   of   the   household 
offeree*   prayer    and    worship    every 
morning,  and  sacrifice  occasionally.  || 
And   each   family   certainly   had   its 
family  tomb,  constructed  on  the  model 
of  a  house,  in  which  the  spirits  of  its 
ancestors  were  regarded  as  residing. 
"  The    tombs    themselves,"    we    are 
told,    "  are   exact    imitations   of    the 
house.     There    is    usually   an   outer 
vestibule.,  apparently  appropriated  to 
the  annual  funeral  feast  :  from  this  a 
passage  leads  to  a  large  central  cham- 
ber, which  is  lighted  by  windows  cut 
through  the  rock.      The  central  hall 


*  Dennis,  "  Cities  and  Cemeteries,"'  vol. 
ii.  pp.  189,  190. 

f  Dennis,  "Cities  and  Cemeteries,"  vol. 
ii.  p.  191. 

J  Taylor,  "  Etruscan'  Researches,"  p.  40. 

§  On  the  Roman  lararium,  which  is  be- 
lieved to  have  been  adopted  from  the  Etrus- 
cans, see  an  article  in  Dr.  Smith's  "Diction- 
ary of  Greek  and  Roman  Antiquities,"  pp. 
667,  668,  2d  edition. 

|j  In  the  Theodosian  Code  it  was  provided 
that  no  one  should  any  longer  worship  his 
tar  with  fire  ("  nullus  'Larem  igne  venere- 
tur"),  or,  in  other  words,  continue  to  sacri- 
fice to  him.  (See  Keightley's  "Mythology," 
p.  470.) 


is  surrounded  by  smaller  chambers,  in 
which  the  dead  repose.  On  the  roof 
we  see  carved  in  stone  the  broad 
beam,  or  roof-tree,  with  rafters  imi- 
tated in  relief  on  either  side,  and  even 
imitations  of  the  tiles.  These  .cham- 
bers contain  the  corpses,  and  are 
furnished  with  all  the  implements, 
ornaments,  and  utensils  used  in  life. 
The  tombs  are,  in  fact,  places  for  the 
dead  to  live  in.  The  position  and 
surroundings  of  the  deceased  are 
made  to  approximate  as  closely  as 
possible  to  the  conditions  of  life. 
The  couches  on  which  the  corpses 
repose  have  a  triclinial  arrangement, 
and  are  furnished  with  cushions 
carved  in  stone ;  and  imitations  of 
easy-chairs  and  footstools  are  care- 
fully hewn  out  of  the  rock.  Every- 
thing, in  short,  is  arranged  as  if  the 
dead  were  reclining  at  a  banquet  in- 
their  accustomed  dwellings.  On  the 
floor  stand  wine-jars  ;  and  the  most 
precious  belongings  of  the  deceased 
— arms,  ornaments,  and  mirrors—? 
hang  from  the  roof,  or  are  suspended 
on  the  walls.  The  walls  themselves 
are  richly  decorated,  usually  being 
painted  with  representations  of  festive 
scenes  ;  we  see  figures  in  gayly-em- 
broidered  garments  reclining  on 
couches,  while  attendants  replenish 
the  goblets,  or  beat  time  to  the  music 
of  the  pipers.  Nothing  is  omitted 
which  can  conduce  to  the  amusement 
or  comfort  of  the  deceased.  Their 
spirits  were  evidently  believed  to  in- 
habit these  house-tombs  after  death,, 
just  as  in  life  they  inhabited  their 
houses."  • 

161.  The  tombs  were  not  perma- 
nently closed.  Once  a  year  at  least,., 
perhaps 'Oftener,  it  was  customary  for 
t,he  surviving  relatives  to  visit  the 
resting-place  of  their  departed  dear, 
ones,  to  carry  them  offerings  as  tokens 
of  affectionate  regard,  and  solicit  their 
favor  and  protection.  The  presents 
brought  included  portrait-statues,  cups, 
dishes,  lamps,  armor,  vases,  mirrors, 
gems,  seals,  and  jewelry.f  Inscrip. 

*  Taylor,  "  Etruscan  Researches,"  pp.  46- 
48- 

\  Ibid.  pp.  271,  306,  etc. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[143]    65 


tions  frequently  accompanied  the  offer- 
ings ;  and  these  show  that  the  gifts 
were  made,  not  to  the  spirit  of  the 
tomb,  or  to  the  infernal  gods,  or 
to  any  other  deities,  but  to  the  per- 
sons whose  remains  were  deposited  in 
tiie  sepulchres.*  Their  spirits  were 
no -doubt  regarded  as  conciliated  by 
the  presents ;  and,  practically,  it  is 
probable  that  far  more  value  was  at- 
tached to  the  fostering  care  of  these 
nearly  allied  protectors  than  to  the 
favor  of  the  awful  gods  of  earth  and 
heaven,  who  were  distant  beings, 
dimly  apprehended,  and  chiefly  known 
as  wielders  of  thunderbolts. 

162.  As  a  whole,  the  Etruscan  re- 
ligion must  be  pronounced  one  of  the 
least  elevating  of  the  forms  of  ancient 
belief.  It  presented  the  gods  mainly 
under  a  severe  and  forbidding  aspect, 
as  beings  to  be  dreaded  and  propiti- 
ated, rather  than  loved  and  wor- 
shiped. It  encouraged  a  supersti- 
tious regard  for  omens  and  portents, 
which  filled  the  mind  with  foolish 
alarms,  and  distracted  men  from  the 
performance  of  the  duties  of  every-day 
life.  It  fostered  the  pride  and  vanity 
of  the  priestly  class  by  attributing  to 
them  superhuman  wisdom,  and  some- 
thing like  infallibility,  while  it  demor- 
alized the  people  by  forcing  them  to 
cringe  before  a  selfish  and  arrogant 
hierarchy.  If  it  diminished  the  nat- 
ural tendency  of  men  to  overvalue  the 
affairs  of  this  transitory  life,  by  placing 
prominently  before  them  the  certainty 
and  importance  of  the  life  beyond  the 
grave,  yet  its  influence  was  debasing 
rather  than  elevating,  from  the  coarse- 
ness of  the  representations  which  it 
gave  alike  of  the  happiness  and  misery 
of  the  future  state.  Where  the  idea 
entertained  of  the  good  man's  final 
bliss  makes  it  consist  in  feasting  and 
carousing,!  and  the  suffering  of  the 

*  Without  accepting  all  Mr.  Taylor's  ren- 
derings of  the  funereal  inscriptions  I  am  of 
opinion  that  he  has  succeeded  in  establishing 
this  point. 

t  See  Dennis,  "  Cities  and  Cemeteries,"  vol. 
i.  p.  294  :  "  They  (the  Etruscans)  believed  in 
the  materiality  of  the  soul ;  and  their  Elysium 
was  but  a  glorification  of  the  present' state 
of  existence  :  the  same  pursuits,  amusements, 


|  lost  arises  from  the  blows  and  wounds 
I  inflicted  by  demons,  the  doctrine  of 
future  rewards  and  punishments  loses 
much  of  its  natural  force,  and  is  more 
likely  to  vitiate  than  to  improve  the 
moral  character.  The  accounts  which 
we  have  of  the  morality  of  the  Etrus- 
cans are  far  from  favorable  ;*  and  it 
may  be  questioned  whether  the  vices 
whereto  they  were  prone  did  not -re- 
ceive a  stimulus,  rather  than  a  check, 
from  their  religion. 


CHAFFER 


RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  GREEKS. 

"  The  Greek  religion  was  the  result  of  the 
peculiar  development  and  history  of  the  Gre- 
j  cian  people."—  DoLLiNUEK,/ew'a«</  Gentile, 
'  vol.  i.  p.  6S. 

163.  THAT  "in  general  the  Greek 
religion  may  be  correctly  described 
as  a  worship  of  Nature  ;  and  that  most 
of  its  deities  corresponded  either  to 
certain  parts  of  the  sensible  world,  or 
to  certain  classes  of  objects  compre- 
hended under  abstract  notions,"  is  a 
remark  of  Bishop  Thirlwallf  in  which 
most  critics  at  the  present  day  will  ac- 
quiesce with  readiness.  Placed  in  a  re- 
gion of  marked  beauty  and  variety,  and 
sympathizing  strongly  with  the  material 
world  around  him,  the  lively  Greek 
saw  in  the  objects  with  which  he  was 
brought  into  contact,  no  inert  mass  of 
dull  arid  lifeless  matter,  but  a  crowd 
of  might}'  agencies,  full  of  a  wonder- 
ful energy.  The  teeming  earth,  the 
quickening  sun,  the  restless  sea,  the 
irresistible  storm,  every  display  of  su- 


and  pleasures  they  had   relished   in   this  life 
they  expected   in    the   next,  but   divested   of 
their  sting,  and  enhanced  by  increased  capaci- 
ties  of   enjoyment.     To  celebrate   the  great 
event,  to   us  "so  solemn  (i.e.,  death),  by  feast- 
j  ing  and  joviality,  was  not   with   them    unbe-^ 
!  coming.     They  knew  not  how  to  conceive  or 
I  represent  a  glorified  existence  otherwise  than 
i  bv  means  of  the  highest  sensual  enjoyment." 
I  (Compare  pp.  443-448.) 

*  See  the  Author's   •'  Origin   of   Nations  " 
i  (No.  25,  HUMBOLDT  LIBRARY). 
i      t  "  History  of  Greece,"  vol.  i.  p.  217. 


66    [144] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


perhtiman  might  which  he  beheld,  nay, 
all  motion  and  growth,  impressed  him 
with  the  sense  of  something  living  and 
working.  He  did  not,  however,  like 
his  Indian  brother,  deify  (as  a  general 
rule)  the  objects  themselves ;  or,  at 
any  rate,  if  he  had  ever  done  so,  it 
was  in  a  remote  past,  of  which  lan- 
guage alone  retained  the  trace  ;  *  he 
did  not,  in  the  times  in  which  he  is 
really  known  to  us,  worship  the  storm, 
or  the  sun,  or  the  earth,  or  the  ocean, 
or  the  winds,  or  the  rivers,  but,  by  the 
power  of  his  imagination,  he  invested 
all  these  things  with  personality. 
Everywhere  around  him,  in  all  the  dif- 
ferent localities,  and  departments,  and 
divisions,  and  subdivisions  of  the  phys- 
ical world,  he  recognized  agencies  of 
unseen  beings  endued  with  life,  voli- 
tion, and  design.  Nature  was  peopled 
for  him  with  a  countless  multitude 
of  such  invisible  powers,  some  inhab- 
iting the  earth,  some  the  heaven,  some 
the  sea,  some  the  dark  and  dreadful  re- 
gion beneath  the  earth,  into  which  the 
sun's  rays  could  not  penetrate.  "  Of 
such  beings,"  as  Mr.  Grote  observes,! 
"  there  were  numerous  varieties,  and 
many  gradations  both  in  power  and 
attributes  ;  there  were  differences  of 
.age,  sex,  and  local  residence,  relations, 
both  conjugal  and  filial,  between  them, 
and  tendencies  sympathetic  as  \vell  as 
repugnant.  The  gods  formed  a  sort 
of  political  community  of  their  own, 
which  had  its  hierarchy,  its  distribu- 
tions of  ranks  and  duties,  its  conten- 
tions for  power,  and  occasional  revo- 
lutions, its  public  meetings  in  the 
: agora  of  Olympus,  and  its  multitudi- 
nous banquets  or  festivals.  The  great 
'Olympic  gods  were,  in  fact,  only  the 
most  exalted  among  an  aggregate  of 
•quasi-human  or  ultra-human  person- 
ages— daemons,  heroes,  nymphs,  epon- 
ymous genii,  identified  with  each 
river,  mountain,  cape,  town,  village, 
-or  known  circumscription  of  territory, 


*  Zeus  may  have  been  once  Dyaus,  "  the 
sky"  (Max  Muiler,  "Chips  from  a  German 
Workshop,"  vol.  ii.  p.  72) ;  but  the  word  very 
early  "became  a  proper  name"  and  desig- 
nated a  person. 

t  "  History  of  Greece,"  vol.  i.  .pp.  463~4 


besides  horses,  bulls,  and  dogs,  of  im- 
mortal breed  and  peculiar  attributes, 
nonsters  of  strange  lineaments  and 
combinations — '  Gorgons,  and  Hy- 
dras, and  Chimaeras  dire' — and  be- 
sides 'gentile  and  ancestral  deities,' 
and  '  peculiar  beings  whose  business 
t  was  to  co-operate  or  impede  in  the 
various  stages  of  each  trade  or  busi- 
ness.' 5) 

164.  Numerous  additions  might  be 
made  to  this  list.  Not  only  had  each 
mountain  chain  and  mountain-top  a 
separate  presiding  god  or  goddess, 
Dut  troops  of  Oreads  inhabited  the 
mountain  regions,  and  disported  them- 
selves among  them ;  not  only  was 
there  a  river-god  to  each  river,  a  Si- 
•nois  and  a  Scamander,  an  Enipeus  and 
an  Acheloiis,  but  every  nameless 
stream  and  brooklet  had  its  water- 
nymph,  every  spring  and  fountain  its 
naiad ;  wood-nymphs  peopled  the 
lades  and  dells  of  the  forest  regions ; 
air-gods  moved  in  the  zephyrs  and  the 
breezes ;  each  individual  oak  had  its 
dryad.  To  the  gods  proper  were 
added  the  heroes,  gods  of  a  lower 
grade,  and  these  are  spoken  of  as 
"  thirty  thousand  in  number,  guardian 
daemons,  spirits  of  departed  heroes, 
who  are  continually  walking  over 
earth,  veiled  in  darkness,  watching 
the  deeds  of  men,  and  dispensing 
weal  or  woe."  * 

165.  It  is  this  multiplicity  of  the 
objects  of  worship,  together  with  their 
lively  active  personality,  which  forms 
the  first  striking  feature  of  the  ancient 
Greek  religion,  and  naturally  attracts 
the  attention  of  observers  in  the  first 
instance.  Nowhere  have  we  such  a 
multitudinous  pantheon.  Not  only  was 
the  multiplicity  of  external*  nature  re- 
flected in  the  spiritual  world  as  in  a 
mirror,  but  every  phase,  and  act,  and 
circumstance  of  human  life,  every 
quality  of  the  mind,  every  attribute 
of  the"  body,  might  be,  generally  was, 
personified,  and  became  a  divine  be- 
ing. Sleep  and  Death,  Old  Age  and 


*  Thirlwall,  "  History  of  Greece,"  vol.  i.  p. 
235.  Compare  Hesiod,  "  Works  and  Days," 
1.  250. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[145]    67 


Pain,  Strength,  Force,  Strife,  Victory, 
Battle,  Murder,  Hunger,  Dreaming. 
Memory,  Forgetfulness,  Lawlessness, 
Law,  Forethought,  Afterthought,  Grief, 
Ridicule,  Retribution,  Recklessness, 
Deceit,  Wisdom,  Affection,  Grace, 
were  gods  or  goddesses,  were  pre- 
sented to  the  mind  as  persons,  and 
had  their  place  in  the  recognized 
Theogonies,*  or  systematic  arrange 
ments  of  the  chief  deities  according 
to  supposed  relationship  and  descent. 
Similarly,  the  facts  of  Nature,  as  dis- 
tinct from  her  parts,  were  personified 
and  worshiped,  Chaos,  Day,  Night, 
Time,  the  Hours,  Dawn,  Darkness, 
Lightning,  Thunder,  Echo,  the  Rain- 
bow, were  persons — "  persons,  just  as 
much  as  Zeus  and  Apollo  "  t — though 
not,  perhaps,  so  uniformly  regarded 
in  this  light. 

166.  Another  leading  feature  in  the 
system  is  the  existence  of  marked 
gradations  of  rank  and  power  among 
the  gods,  who  fall  into  at  least  five 
definite  classes,!  clearly  distin- 
guished the  one  from  the  other.  First 
and  foremost  come  the  Olympic  dei- 
ties, twelve  in  number,  six  male  and 
six  female,  but  not  as  a  rule  con- 
nected together  in  pairs — Zeus,  Pose- 
idon, Apollo,  Ares,  Hephaestus,  Her- 
mes, Hera,  Athene',  Artemis,  Aphro- 
dite, Hestia,  and  Demeter.  Next  in 
order  are  the  great  bulk  of  the  gods 
and  goddesses,  Hades,  Dionysus, 
Cronus,  Uranus,  Hyperion,  Helios, 
Nereus,  Proteus,  ^Eolus,  Leto,  Dione*, 
Persephone,  Hecate,  Selene',  Themis, 
Harmonia,  the  Graces,  the  Muses, 
the  Fates,  the  Furies,  the  Eileithyice, 
the  Oceanids,  the  Nereids,  the 
Nymphs,  the  Naiads  and  the  like. 
In  the  third  rank  may  be  placed 
the  deities  who  act  as  attendants 
on  the  greater  gods,  and  per- 
form services  for  them,  Iris,  the  mes- 
senger of  Jove,  Hebe*,  his  cup-bearer, 
Kratos  and  Bia,  the  servants  of  Heph- 
aestus,! Boreas,  Notus,  etc.,  subordi- 

*  Hesiod,  " Theogon,"  11.  114-264;  Apol- 
lodorus,  "  Bibliotheca,"  i.  1-6. 

t  Grote,  "  History  of  Greece,"  vol.  i.  p.  2. 

J  Ibid.,  pp.  14,  15. 

§  See  yEschyl.  "  Prom.  Vinct."  sub  init. 


nates  of  ^Eolus,  the  Hours,  handmaids 
of  Aphrodite,  etc.  Fourthly,  we  may 
name  the  more  shadowy  gods  and 
goddesses,  Night,  Day,  Ether,  Dawn, 
Darkness,  Death,  Sleep,  Strife,  Mem- 
ory, Fame,  Retribution,  Reckless- 
ness, etc.,  who  do  not  often  appear 
as  deities  except  in  poetry,  and  are 
perhaps  rather  personifications  con- 
sciously made  than  real  substantive 
divinities.  Finally  must  be  mentioned 
the  monstrous  births  ascribed  to  cer- 
tain divine  unions  or  marriages,  e.  g.y 
the  Cyclopes,  and  Centimani,  the  off- 
spring of  Earth  and  Heaven  (Gsea 
and  Uranus)  ;  the  Harpies,  daughters 
of  Thaumas  and  Electra,  one  of  the 
Oceanidae ;  the  Gorgons  and  Grasse. 
children  of  Phorcys  and  Ceto  ;  Chry- 
saor  and  Pegasus,  born  of  the  blood  of 
Medusa,  when  she  was  slain  by  Perse- 
us ;  Geryon  and  Echidna,  sprung  from 
Chrysaor  and  Callirrhoe ;  Orthros, 
the  two-headed  dog  of  Geryon,  born 
of  Typhaon  and  Echidna  ;  Cerberus, 
the  dog  of  Hades,  with  fifty  heads  ;- 
Scylla  and  Charybdis  ;  the  Lemasan 
Hydra,  the  Sphinx  of  Thebes,  the 
Nemean  Lion,  the  Dragon  of  the 
Hesperides,  the  Centaurs,  the  Chi- 
msera,  etc.,  etc. 

167.  The   chief    interest  naturally 
attaches  to  the  gods  of  the  First  Order, 
those  commonly  denominated  "  Olym- 
pic ;"  and,  in  a  work  like  the  present, 
some    account    must  necessarily  be 
given  of  the  twelve  deities  who  con-, 
stituted  the  Olympian  council. 

ZEUS. 

1 68.  At  the  head  of  all,  occupying 
a  position    quite   unique    and   unlike 
that   of  any   ether,    stood   the    great 

|  Zeus.  Zeus  is  "  the  God,  or,  as  he  is- 
called  in  later  times,  the  Father  of  the 
gods  and  the  God  of  gods.  When 
we  ascend  to  the  most  distant  heights 
of  Greek  history,  the  idea  of  God,  as 
the  Supreme  Being,  stands  before  us 
as  a  simple  fact."  *  "  Zeus,"  said  an 
ancient  poet,  "  is  the  beginning  ;  Zeus 
the  middle  ;  out  of  Zeus  have  all  things 

*  Max  Mullet  "  Chips,"  vol.  ii.  p.  148. 


[146] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


ijeen  made."  Zeus  was  "the  lord  of 
the  upper  regions,  who  dwelt  on  the 
summits  of  the  highest  mountains, 
gathered  the  clouds  about  him,  shook 
the  air  with  his  thunder,  and  wielded 
the  lightning  as  the  instrument  of  his 
wrath.  From  elements  drawn  from 
these  different  sources  his  character, 
a  strange  compound  of  strength  and 
weakness,  seems  to  have  been  formed 
by  successive  poets,  who,  if  they  in 
some  degree  deserved  the  censure 
'of  the  philosophers,  seem  at  least  not 
'to  have  been  guilty  of  any  arbitrary 
fictions ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  by 
establishing  his  supremacy  they  in- 
troduced (?)  a  principle  of  unity  into 
'the  Greek  polytheism,  which  was  not 
perhaps  without  influence  on  the 
speculations  of  the  philosophers 
themselves,  though  it  exerted  little 
on  the  superstitions  of  the  vulgar. 
The  Olympian  deities  are  assembled 
round  Zeus  as  his  family,  in  which  he 
maintains  the  mild  dignity  of  a  pa- 
triarchal king.  He  assigns  their  sev- 
bral  provinces,  and  controls  their 
authority.  Their  combined  efforts 
cannot  give  the  slightest  shock  to  his 
jpower,  nor  retard  the  execution  of  his 
will ;  and  hence  their  waywardness, 
pven  when  it  incurs  his  rebuke,  can- 
hot  ruffle  the  inward  serenity  of  his 
soul.  The  tremendous  nod,  where- 
with he  confirms  his  decrees,  can 
neither  be  revoked  nor  frustrated. 
As  his  might  is  irresistible,  so  is  his 
>visdom  unsearchable.  He  holds  the 
golden  balance  in  which  are  poised 
the  destinies  of  nations  and  of  men  ; 
from  the  two  vessels  that  stand  at  his 
threshold  he  draws  the  good  and 
evil  gifts  that  alternately  sweeten 
and  embitter  mortal  existence.  The 
eternal  order  of  things,  the  ground 
of  the  immutable  succession  of  events, 
•is  his,  and  therefore  he  himself  sub- 
mits to  it.  Human  laws  derive  their 
sanction  from  his  ordinance  ;  earthly 
kings  receive  their  scepter  from  his 
hand  ;  he  is  the  guardian  of  social 
rights ;  he  watches  over  the  ful- 
fillment of  contract's,  the  observance 
of  oaths ;  he  punishes  treachery,  ar- 
rogance, and  cruelty.  The  stranger 


and  the  suppliant  are  under  his  pe- 
culiar protection ;  the  fence  that  en- 
closes the  family  dwelling  is  in  his 
keeping;  he  avenges  the  denial  and 
the  abuse  of  hospitality.  Yet  even 
this  greatest  and  most  glorious  of  be- 
ings, as  he  is  called,  is  sub- 
ject, like  the  other  gods,  to  pas- 
sion and  frailty.  For,  though  se- 
cure from  dissolution,  though  sur- 
passingly beautiful  and  strong,  and 
warmed  with  a  purer  blood  than  fills 
the  veins  of  men,  their  heavenlj 
frames  are  not  insensible  to  pleasure 
and  pain  ;  they  need  the  refreshment 
of  ambrosial  food,  and  inhale  a  grate- 
ful savor  from  the  sacrifices  of  their 
worshipers.  Their  other  affections 
correspond  to  the  grossness  of  these 
animal  appetites.  Capricious  love 
and  hatred,  anger  and  jealousy,  often 
disturb  the  calm  of  their  bosoms  ; 
the  peace  of  the  Olympian  state  might 
be  broken  by  factions,  and  even  by 
conspiracies  formed  against  its  chief. 
He  himself  cannot  keep  perfectly  aloof 
from  their  quarrels  ;  he  occasionally 
wavers  in  his  purpose,  is  overruled  by 
artifice,  blinded  by  desires,  and  hur- 
ried by  resentment  into  unseemly 
violence.  The  relation  in  which  he 
stands  to  Fate  is  not  uniformly  rep- 
resented in  the  Homeric  poems,  and 
probably  the  poet  had  not  formed  a 
distinct  notion  of  it.  Fate  is  gener- 
ally described  as  emanating  from  his 
will,  but  sometimes  he  appears  to  be 
no  more  than  the  minister  of  a  stern 
necessity,  which  he  wishes  in  vain  to 
elude."  * 

169.  And  Zeus  bears  to  man  the 
relation  of  "father."  Each  mortal 
who  has  a  supplication  to  make  to 
him,  may  address  him  as  2«>  K-a-ep, 
"  God  (our)  Father."  He  bears,  as 
one  of  his  most  usual  titles,  the  des- 
ignation of  "  Father  of  gods  and 
men."  As  St.  Paul  says,f  quoting  a 
Greek  poet,  "we  are  his  offspring." 
The  entire  passage  where  these  words 
occur  is  remarkable,  and  very  instruc- 
tive on  the  Grecian  idea  of  Zeus. 


*  Thirlwall  "History  of  Greece,"   vol.  i. 
pp.  217-219. 
t  Acts  xvii.  28. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD.  [147] 


44  With  Zeus  begin  we — let  no  mortal  voice 
Leave  Zeus  unpraised.     Zeus  fills  the  haunts 

of  men, 
The  streets,  the  marts — Zeus  fills  the  sea, 

the  .shores, 

The  harbors — everywhere  we  live  in  Zeus. 
We  are  his  offspring  too  ;  friendly  to  man, 
He  gives  prognostics;  sets  m«n  to  their 

toil 

By  need  of  daily  bread  :  tells  when  the  land 
Must    be    upturned    by  plowshare    or    by 

spade — 

What  time  to  plant  the  olive  or  the  vine — 
What  time  to  fling  on  earth  the  golden  grain. 
For  He  it  was  who  scattered  o'er  the  sky 
The  shining  stars,  and  fixed  them  where  they 
•        are — 

Provided  constellations  through  the  year, 
To   mark  the   seasons   in   their  changeless 

course. 
Wherefore   men  worship  Him — the  First — 

the  Last — 
Their  Father — Wonderful — their  Help  and 

Shield."* 

170.  A  pantheistic  tinge.'  pervades 
this  description  ;  but  still  in  parts  it 
approaches  to  some  of  the  most  beau- 
tiful and  sublime  expressions  of  Holy 
Writf      It   presents   Zeus   to   us    as 
omnipresent,    beneficent,    worthy   of 
perpetual  praise,  our  father,  our  help 
and  defense,  our  support  and   stay. 
It  sets  him  forth  as  "wonderful,"  or 
rather  "  a  mighty  wonder  " — f^7a  6ai\ua 
— a  being  beyond  our  power  to  com- 
prehend, whom  we  must  be  content  to 
reverence  and  admire.     It  recognizes 
him  as  having  hung  the  stars  in  the 
blue  vault  of  heaven,  and  having  set 
them  there  "  for  signs,  and  for  seasons, 
and  for  days,   and  years."     It   calls 
him   "the  First"   and  "the   Last"— 
the  Alpha  and  the  Omega  of  being. 

171.  Such  is  the  strength  of ,  Zeus, 
according   to    the    Greek    idea ;    but 
withal    there    is   a   weakness    about 
him,  which  sinks   him,  not   only  be- 
low  the    "  Almighty "    of    Scripture, 
but  even  below  the    Ormazd  of  the 
Persians.     He  has  a  material  frame, 
albeit    of    an    ethereal    and    subtle 


*  Aratus,  "  Phenomena,"  11.  1-15. 

t  Compare  "everywhere  we  live  in  Zeus  " 
with  "  in  Him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have 
our  being  "  (Acts  xvii.  28) — the  provision  of 
constellations  with  Gen.  i.  14 — the  term 
"Wonderful"  with  Isa.  ix.  6 — "the  First, 
the  Last"  with  Rev.  i.  8,  u,  etc. — "their 
Help  and  Shield  "  with  Psa.  xviii.  2  ;  xlvi.  i, 
etc. 


fiber;  and  requires  material  suste- 
nance. According  to  some  of  the 
myths,  he  was  born  in  time  ;  accord- 
ing to  all,  he  was  once  a  god  of  small 
power.  Heaven  had  its  revolutions 
in  the  Greek  system  :  and  as  the  sov- 
ereignty of  Olympus  had  passed  from 
Uranus  to  Cronus,  and  from  Cronu: 
to  Zeus  in  former  times,  so  in  the  fut- 
ure it  might  pass,  and  according  to 
some,  was  doomed  to  pass,  from  Zeus 
to  another.*  Nor  was  he  without 
moral  defect.  A  rebellious  son,  a 
faithless  husband,  not  always  a  kin$ 
father,  he  presented  to  the  moral  con- 
sciousness no  perfect  pattern  for  man's 
imitation,  but  a  strange  and  monstrous 
combination  of  wickedness  with  high 
qualities,  of  weakness  with  strength, 

of  good  with  evil.f 
fe  ' 


POSEIDON. 


172.  Poseidon  is  reckoned  as  the 
second  of  the  Olympic  gods,  rather 
as  being,  in  the  mythology,  the  brother 
of  Zeus,  than  from  any  superiority  of 
his  own  over  the  rest  of  the  Olympi- 
ans.$  He  is  viewed  as  especially 
the  god  of  the  sea,  and  is  worshiped 
chiefly  by  maritime  states  and  .in 
cities  situated  on  or  near  the  coast;; 
but  he  has  also  a  considerable  hold 
upon  the  land,  and  is  "  earth-shak- 
ing" and  "earth-possessing,"  quite  as 
decidedly  as  sovereign  ruler  of  the 
seas  and  ocean.  His  worship  is 
ancient,  and  in  many  places  has  given 
way  to  an  introduction  of  later  arid 
more  fashionable  deities.  It  has 
traces  of  a  rudeness  and  roughness 
that  are  archaic,  and  stands  connected 
with  the  more  grotesque  and  barba- 
rous element  in  the  religion.  "  Among 
his  companions  are  wild  Titans  and 
spiteful  daemons,"  §  human  sacrifices 


*yEschyl,  "  Prom.  Vinct."  11.  939-959. 

t  Compare  Mr.  Gladstone's  remarks  in  his 
"  Homer  and  the  Homeric  Age,"  vol.  ii.  pp. 
186-190. 

J  Poseidon  claims  in  the  "  Iliad,"  an  au- 
thority within  his  own  domain  independent 
of  Zeus  ("Iliad,"  xv.  174  et  seqq,},  but  exer- 
cises no  right  of  rule  over  any  other  god. 

§  Curtius,  "  History  of  Greece,"  vol.  i.  p. 
56. 


•70    [148] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


are  offered  to  him  ;  horses  are  buried 
alive  in  his  honor ;  Polyphemus  the 
.Cyclops,  whom  Ulysses  punishes,  is 
his  son ;  and  his  offspring  generally 
are  noted  for  huge  size  and  great  cor- 
poreal strength.*  It  has  been  main- 
tained that  his  cult  was  of  foreign 
origin,  having  been  introduced  among 
the  Greeks  by  the  Carians,t  or  by  the 
Libyans  ;  $  but  there  are  no  sufficient 
.grounds  for  these  refinements,  or  for 
separating  off  Poseidon  from  the  bulk 
of  the  Olympic  deities,  admittedly  of 
native  growth,  and  having  a  general 
family  resemblance.  If  Poseidon  is 
cast  in  a  ruder  and  rougher  mold 
than  most  of  the  others,  we  may  ac- 
count for  it  by  the  character  of  his 
element,  and  the  boisterousness  of 
sailors,  who  were  at  all  times  his  prin- 
cipal worshipers.  Poseidon's  rough- 
ness is  compensated  for  by  a  solidity 
and  strength  of  character,  not  too 
common  among  the  Grecian  deities  ; 
he  is  not  readily  turned  from  his  pur- 
pose ;  blandishments  have  little  effect 
upon  him  ;  failure  does  not  discour- 
.age  him  ;  he  is  persistent,  and  gener- 
ally, though  not  always,  successful. 
His  hostility  to  Troy,  arising  from  his 
treatment  by  Laomedon,  conduced 
greatly  toward  that  city's  destruction, 
and  the  offense  which  he  took  at  the 
decision  of  Erechtheus  led  to  the  final 
overthrow  of  that  hero's  family.  On 
the  other  hand,  his  persecution  of 
Ulysses,  on  account  of  the  chastise- 
ment which  he  had  inflicted  on  Poly- 
phemus, does  not  prevent  the  final  re- 
turn of  that  much-enduring  wanderer 
to  Ithaca,  nor  does  his  opposition 
succeed  in  hindering  the  settlement 
of  ./Eneas,  with  his  Trojan  compan- 
ions, in  Latium.  For  grandeur  and 
sublimity  of  character  and  position 
Poseidon  cannot  compare  with  Zeus, 
whom,  however,  he  sometimes  ven- 
tures to  beard  ;  §  in  respect  of  moral 
conduct  he  is  in  no  way  Zeus's  supe- 


rior :  in  respect  of  intellectual  eleva- 
tion he  falls  decidedly  below  him. 

APOLLO. 

173.  The  conception  of  Apollo  as 
the  sun  is  a  late  form  of  Hellenic  be- 
lief, and  must   be    wholly    put    aside 
when  we  are  considering  the  religion 
of  the  ancient  Greeks.     Apollo  seems 
to  have  been  originally,  like   Zeus,  a 
representation  of  the  one  God,  origi- 
nating probably  in  some  part  of  Greece 
where  Zeus  was  unknown,*  and  sub- 
sequently adopted  into  the  system  prev- 
alent in  Homeric  times,  and   in    this 
system  subordinated  to  Zeus  as  his  son 
and  interpreter.    Compared  with  Zeus, 
he  is  a  spiritualized  conception.     Zeus 
is  the  embodiment  of  creative  energy 
and  almighty  power :  Apollo  of  divine 
prescience,  of    healing   skill,  and   of 
musical  and  poetic  production.     "  In 
Apollo  Hellenic   polytheism  received 
its   harmonious   completion,  and   the 
loftiest   glorification  of  which  it  was 
capable."  f 

174.  Apollo  rises  on  the  vision  of 
one  familiar  with  Greek  antiquity  as 
almost  a  pure  conception,  almost  an 
angelic  divinity.     To  a  form  of  ideal 
beauty,  combining  youthful  grace  and. 
vigor  with    the   fullest   perfection    of 
manly   strength,   he    added   unerring 
wisdom,  complete  insight  into  futurity, 
an   unstained  iife,-t  the  magic  power 
of  song,  ability  and  will  to  save  and 
heal,  together  with  the  dread  preroga- 
tive of  dealing  out  at  his  pleasure  de- 
struction and  death.     Compassionate 
on    occasions    as    Mercy    herself,    he 
shows    at   times  the  keen  and  awful 
seventy   of   a   destroying    archangel. 
Ekebolos,    "striking    from    afar,"   he 
speeds  his  fatal  shafts  from  his  unfail- 
ing bow,  and  smites  whomsoever  he 
will  with  a  death-stroke  which  there  is 
no  escaping.     Never  offended  without 
cause,   never   moved   by   caprice,  he 


*  Horn.  "  Odyssey,"  xi.  505-520. 

t  Curtius,  vol.  i.  p.  298  :  "  The  Carians  in- 
troduced [into  GreeceJ  the  worship  of  the 
Carian  Zeus,  and  of  Poseidon." 

\  Herod,  ii.  50;  iv.  188. 

§Hom.  "Iliad," xv.  175. 


*  Curtius  suggests  Lycia  or  Crete  ("  His- 
tory of  Greece,"  vol.  i.  p.  59). 

t  Ibid. 

\  See  this  point  discussed  in  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's "  Homer  and  the  Homeric  Age  "  (vol. 
ii.  pp.  106-111). 


THE  RELIGIONS   OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[149]    71 


works  the  will  of  Zeus  in  all  that  he 
does,  dispenses  retributive  justice,  and 
purifies  with  wholesome  fear  the  souls 
of  men.  Partaker  of  all  the  counsels 
of  his  father,  and  permitted  to  use  his 
discretion  in  communicating  them  to 
the  denizens  of  earth,  he  delivers  his 
oracular  responses  from  the  various 
spots  which  he  has  chosen  as  his 
special  abodes,  and,  though  sometimes 
his  replies  may  be  of  doubtful  import, 
seldom  sends  away  a  votary  unsatis- 
fied. The  answers  which  he  gives,  or 
at  any  rate  is  supposed  to  give,  deter- 
mine the  decisions  of  statesmen,*  and 
shape  the  course  of  history.  War  and 
peace,  treaties  and  alliances,  are  made 
and  unmade,  as  the  Delphic  and  other 
oracles  inspired  by  him  advise ;  and 
the  course  of  Hellenic  colonization  is 
almost  entirely  determined  by  his  de- 
crees.t 

175.  Poet,  prophet,  physician,  harp- 
er, god  of  victory  and  angel  of  death 
in  one,  Apollo  is  always  on  the  side 
of  right,  always  true  to  Zeus,  and  not 
much  inferior  to  him  in  power.  It  is, 
perhaps,  a  fanciful  analogy  which  has 
been  traced  between  him  and  the  Sec- 
ond Person  of  the  Christian  Trinity  ;$ 
but  the  very  fact  that  such  an  analogy 
can  be  suggested  is  indicative  of  the 
pure  and  lofty  character  of  the  god, 


*  Herod,  vii.  140-143. 

t  Ibid.  iv.  150-159;  v.  42,  etc. 

\  Friedrich  says :  "  This  triad  of  Zeus, 
Athene,  and  Apollo  bears  an  unmistakable 
analogy  to  the  Christian  Trinity  of  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Ghost :  Zeus  answering  to  God 
the  Father,  Athene  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
Apollo  to  the  Son  of  God,  the  Declarer  of  the 
will  of  his  Heavenly  Father"  ("Die  Realten 
in  der  Iliade  und  Odyssee,"  part  iii.  pp.  635 
and  689).  Mr.  Gladstone  came  independently  | 
to  the  same  conclusion,  and  says  : — "  In  Apollo 
are  represented  the  legendary  anticipations  of 
a  person  to  come,  in  whom  should  be  com- 
bined all  the  great  offices  in  which  God  the 
Son  is  now  made  known  to  man,  as  the  Light 
of  our  paths,  the  Physician  of  our  diseases, 
the  Judge  of  our  misdeeds,  and  the  Conqueror 
and  Disarmer,  but  not  yet  Abolisher,  of 
death "  ("  Homer  and  the  Homeric  Age," 
vol.  ii.  p.  132).  Professor  Max  Miiller,  on 
the  other  hand,  thinks  that  "  it  seems  blas- 
phemy to  consider  the  fables  of  the  heathen 
world  as  corrupted  and  misinterpreted  frag- 
ments of  a  divine  revelation  once  granted  to 
the  whole  of  mankind  "  ("  Chips  from  a  Ger- 
man Workshop,"  vol.  ii.  p.  13). 


which  equals  at  any  rate,  if  it  does 
not  transcend,  the  highest  ideal  of 
divinity  that  has  hither  to  been  elabo- 
rated by  unassisted  human  wisdom. 

ARES. 

• 

176.  It  has  been  well  said  that  Ares 
is  "  the  impersonation  of  a  passion." 
That  combative  propensity,  which  man 
possesses  in  common  with  a  large 
number  of  animals,  was  regarded  by 
the  Greeks,  not  only  as  a  divine  thing, 
but  as  a  thing  of  such  lofty  divinity 
that  its  representative  must  have  a 
place  among  the  deities  of  the  first 
class  or  order.  The  propensity  itself 
was  viewed  as  common  to  man  with 
the  gods,  and  as  having  led  to  "  wars 
in  heaven,"  wherein  all  the  greater 
deities  had  borne  their  part.  Now 
that  peace  was  established  in  the 
Olympian  abode,  it  found  a  vent  on 
earth,  and  caused  the  participation  of 
the  gods  in  the  wars  carried  on  among 
mortals.  Ares  was  made  the  son  of 
Zeus  and  Hera,  the  king  and  queen 
of  heaven.  He  was  represented  as 
tall,  handsome,  and  active,  but  as 
cruel,  lawless,  and  greedy  of  blood. 
The  finer  elements  of  the  warlike 
spirit  are  not  his.  He  is  a  divine 
Ajax,*  rather  than  a  divine  Achilles  ; 
and  the  position  which  he  occupies  in 
the  Olympian  circle  is  low.  Apollo 
and  Athene  are  both  entitled  to  give 
him  their  orders ;  and  Athene  scolds 
him,  strikes  him  senseless,  and  wounds 
him  through  the  spear  of  Diomed.f 
His  worship  is  thought  to  have  been 
derived  from  Thrace, $  and  to  have 
been  introduced  into  Greece  only  a 
little  before  the  time  of  Homer. §  It 
was  at  no  time  very  widely  spread,  or 
much  affected  by  any  Grecian  tribe 
or  state,  the  conception  being  alto- 


*Mr.  Gladstone  says,  "not  so  much  an 
Ajax  as  a  Caliban"  ("Homer  and  the  Ho- 
meric Age,"  vol.  ii.  p.  228) ;  but  is  not  this  too 
harsh  a  view,  even  of  the  Homeric  conception 
of  Ares? 

tHom.  "Iliad,"  v.  885-887;  xv.  110-142, 
etc. 

|  Dollinger, "  Jew  and  Gentile,"  vol.  i.  p.  88. 

§  Gladstone,  "  Homer  and  the  Homeric 
Age,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  229-231. 


.2     [150] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


gether  too  coarse  to  attract  the   sym- 
pathies of  a  refined  people. 

•  ' 

HEPH^STUS. 

177.  Hephccstus  is  the  god  of  fire, 
and  especially  of  fire  in  connection 
with  smelting  and  metallurgy.  He 
dwells  in  Lemnos,  where  he  habitually 
forges  thunderbolts  for  Zeus,  and 
occasionally  produces  fabrics  in  metal 
of  elaborate  and  exquisite  construc- 
tion. Among  the  most  marvelous  of 
his  works  are  the  automatic  tripods  of 
Olympus  and  the  bronze  maidens, 
whom  he  has  formed  to  be  his  attend- 
ants on  account  of  his  lameness.  He 
is  the  armorer  of  heaven,  and  provides 
the  gods  generally  with  the  weapons 
which  they  use  in  warfare.  The  pe- 
culiarity of  his  lameness  is  strange  and 
abnormal,  since  the  Greeks  hate  de- 
formity, and  represent  their  deities 
generally  as  possessed  of  perfect  phys- 
ical beauty.  It  has  been  accounted 
for  on  the  supposition  that  he  is  a  Gre- 
cised  Phthah,*  introduced  from  Egypt, 
directly  or  indirectly,!  and  that  his  de- 
formity is  a  modification  of  Phthah's 
presentment  as  a  pigmy  with  the  lower 
limbs  misshapen.  But  the  features 
common  to  Hephaestus  with  Phthah 
are  few;  the  name  of  Hephaestus  is 
probably  of  pure  Greek  etymology, 
connected  with  V"*°?  and  ^alvu  •  arid,  on 
the  whole,  there  would  seem  to  be  no 
evidence  that  Hephaestus  is  a  foreign 
god  more  than  any  other.  Rather,  it 
is  characteristic  of  the  many-sidedness 
of  the  Greeks,  and  consequent  upon 
the  anthropomorphism  which  makes 
the  Olympic  community  a  reflection  of 
earthly  things,  that  there  should  be 
even  in  this  august  conclave  some- 
thing provocative  of  laughter,  a  dis- 
cord to  break  the  monotony  of  the 
harmony,  an  element  of  grotesqueness 
and  monstrosity.  Hephaestus  in  the 
Olympic  halls  is  like  the  jester  at  the 
court  of  a  medieval  monarch,  a  some- 


*  Sir  G.  Wilkinson  in  Rawlinson's  "  Herod- 
otus," vol.  ii.  p.  139,  note  (^cl  edition). 

t  Mr.  Gladstone  regards  him  as  introduced 
from  Phoenicia  ("  Homer  and  the  Homeric 
Age,"  vol.  ii.  p.  255). 


thing  to  lighten  the  seriousness  of  ex-  s 
istence,  to  provoke  occasionally  a 
burst  of  that  *'  inextinguishable  laugh- 
ter," without  which  life  in  so  sublime 
an  atmosphere  would  be  intolerable. 
The  marriage  of  Hephaestus  to  Aphro- 
dite is  conceived  in  the  same  spirit. 
There  was  a  keen  sense  of  humor  in 
the  countrymen  of  Aristophanes ;  and 
the  combination  of  the  clumsy,  lame, 
and  begrimed  smith  with  the  Queen 
of  Beauty  and  Love  pleased  their  sense  ! 
of  the  ludicrous,  and  was  the  fertile  . 
source  of  many  an  amusing  legend. 
"  The  Lay  of  the  Net,"  wherewith  De- 
modocus  entertains  both  gods  and 
men,*  is  a  sufficient  specimen  of  this 
class  of  lively  myth,  and  shows  that 
the  comic  features  of  ill-assorted  mar- 
riage, on  which  modern  playwrights 
have  traded  so  freely,  were  fully  appre- 
ciated by  the  Greeks,  and  were  sup- 
posed well-suited  to  provoke  the  gods 
to  merriment.  The  modern  moralist 
will  regret  this  unworthy  represen- 
tation of  divine  beings  ;j  but  it  is 
quite  in  accord  with  the  general  char- 
acter of  the  Greek  religion,  which 
reflected  back  upon  deity  all  that  was 
weak,  as  well  as  all  that  was  strong,  in 
man. 

HERMES. 

178.  Hermes  is  the  impersonation 
of  commercial  dealings,  and  hence  a 
god  who  gives  wealth  and  increase,  a 
god  of  inventive  power,  and  a  god  of 
tricks  and  thievery.  He  is  "the 
Olympian  man  of  business,"  $  and 
therefore  employed  in  embassies  and 
commissions,  and  even  sometimes  in 
the  simple  carrying  of  messages.  As 
ti&Tup  edwy,§  "  the  giver  of  comforts," 
he  secures  his  votaries  all  manner  of 
worldly  prosperity.  He  is  industrious 
and  inventive,  constructs  the  seven- 
stringed  lyre  before  he  is  a  day  old,| 
afterward  invents  the  pan's-pipes, 


*  Horn.  "  Odyss."  viii.  266-366. 

t  "  Homer  and  the  Homeric  Age,"  vol.  ii. 
pp.  461-463- 

J  Dollinger,  "Jew  and  Gentile,"  vol.  i.  p.  74, 

§  Horn.  "  Odyss."  viii.  335.  Compare  "  Il- 
iad," xiv.  490. 

||  Horn.  "  Hym.  Merc."  1.  16. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[151]    73. 


and,  ultimately  becomes  a  god  of 
wisdom  and  learning  generally.  His 
thievishness  must  be  taken  to  show 
that  commercial  fraud  is  pretty  well  as 
ancient  as  commerce  itself,  and  that 
"  the  good  old  times  "  were  not,  as 
sometimes  represented,  an  age  of  in- 
nocence. It  has  been  said  that  he  is 
more  human  than  any  other  Olympian 
god;  and  that  "he  represents,  so  to 
speak,  the  utilitarian  side  of  the  hu- 
man mind,"  *  being  active,  energetic, 
fruitful  in  resource,  a  keen  bargainer, 
a  bold  story-teller,  and  a  clever  thief. 
His  admission  into  the  number  of  the 
Olympians  is  the  strongest  possible 
indication  of  the  inferiority  of  the 
moral  standard  among  the  Greeks. 
The  special  regard  paid  to  him  by  the 
Athenians  is,  however,  perhaps  the 
mere  consequence  of  their  addiction 
to  the  pursuits  of  commerce. 

179.  Hermes  is    commonly  repre- 
sented as  a  youth  just   attaining   to 
manhood.     The    wings   which   adorn 
his  head  and   ankles  indicate  the  ce- 
lerity of  his  movements.     His  cadu- 
ceus   is    perhaps   the   golden   rod    of 
wealth  given  to  him  by  Apollo  in  ex- 
change for  the  lyre.      It    represents 
also    the   staff   commonly    borne    by 
heralds,  and  in  this  point  of  view  had 
white  ribbons  attached  to  it,  which  in 
later  times  became  serpents.     Some- 
times he  holds  a  purse  in  his  hand,  to 
mark  his  power  of  bestowing  riches. 

180.  The  six  female  Olympic  deities 
— 'Hera,  Athene,  Artemis,  Aphrodite', 
Hestia,  and  Demeter — have  now  to 
be  considered. 

HERA. 

iJSi.  The  anthropomorphism  which 
was  so  main  an  element  in  the  Greek 
religion  made  it  requisite  that  mother- 
hood, as  well  as  fatherhood,  should 
be  enthroned  in  the  Olympic  sphere, 
that  Zeus  should  have  his  consort, 
heaven  its  queen,  and  women  their 
representative  in  the  highest  celestial 
position.  Hera  was,  perhaps,  origi- 


Homer  and  the  Homeric  Age,"  vol.  ii. 


p.  242. 


nally  Era,  "the  Earth;"*  but  this 
idea  was  soon  lost  sight  of,  and  in 
Greek  mythology,  from  first  to  last, 
she  is  quite  other  than  the  principle 
of  mundane  fecundity,  quite  a  differ- 
ent being  from  the  oriental  earth- 
goddess,  called  indifferently  Cybele', 
Dindymene',  Magna  Mater,  Rhea, 
Beltis,  Mylitta,  etc.  Hera  is,  pri- 
marily, the  wife  of  Zeus,  the  queen  of 
the  Olympic  court,  the  mistress  of 
heaven.  She  is  "  a  reflected  image 
of  Zeus,"  t  and  exercises  all  her  hus- 
band's prerogatives,  thunders,  shakes 
Olympus,  makes  Iris  her  messenger, 
gives  her  orders  to  the  Winds  and  the 
Sun,  confers  valor,  and  the  like.  As 
the  personification  of  maternity,  she 
presides  over  childbirth  ;  and  the  Eilei- 
thyias,  her  daughters,  act  as  her  minis- 
ters. She  does  not  present  to  us  an 
elevated  idea  of  female  perfection, 
since,  despite  her  exalted  rank,  she 
is  subject  to  numerous  feminine  in- 
firmities. Mr.  Grote  notes  that  she  is 
"proud,  jealous,  and  bitter."^  Mr. 
Gladstone  observes  that  she  is  pas- 
sionate, wanting  in  moral  elevation, 
cruel,  vindictive,  and  unscrupulous. § 
Her  mythological  presentation  was 
certainly  not  of  a  nature  to  improve 
the  character  of  those  women  who 
might  take  her  for  their  model ;  since, 
although  she  was  possessed  of  certain 
great  qualities,  passion,  fervor,  strong 
affection,  self-command,  courage, 
acuteness,  yet  she  was,  on  the  whole, 
wanting  in  the  main  elements  of  fe- 
male excellence,  gentleness,  softness, 
tenderness,  patience,  submission  to 
wrong,  self-renunciation,  reticence. 
She  was  a  proud,  grand,  haughty, 
powerful  queen  ;  not  a  kind,  helpful, 
persuasive,  loving  woman.  The  my- 
thology of  Greece  is  in  few  points 
less  satisfactory  than  in  the  type  of 


*  See  Mr.  Gladstone's  "  Homer  and  the 
Homeric  Age,"  vol.  ii.  p.  190.  Others  sug- 
gest a  connection  with  heros,  herus \  hera,  and 
so  with  the  German  herr  and  our  sir. 

t  "  Homer  and  the  Homeric  Age,"  vol.  ii.  p. 
194. 

j  "  History  of  Greece,"  vol.  i.  p.  50. 

§  "  Homer  and  the  Homeric  Age,"  vol.  iLi 
pp.  190-196. 


T4    [152] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


female  character  which  it  exhibits  at 
the  head  of  its  pantheon. 

ATHENE. 

182.  If  Hera  is  below  the  level  of 
female  excellence  which  we  might 
have  expected  refined  heathens  to 
have  represented  in  a  chief  goddess, 
Athene'  is  above  the  level.  She  has 
a  character  which  is  without  a  flaw. 
Originally,  as  it  would  seem,  a  con- 
scious impersonation  of  the  divine 
wisdom,  and  therefore  fabled  to  have 
sprung  full-grown  from  the  head  of 
Zeus,  she  became  a  distinct  and  sub- 
stantive deity  at  a  very  early  date, 
and  was  recognized  as  the  "  goddess 
of  wisdom,  war,  polity,  and  industrial 
art."*  Homer  places  her,  together 
with  Zeus  and  Apollo,  on  a  higher 
platform  of  divinity  than  the  other 
deities,f  and  makes  her  even  oppose 
Zeus  when  he  is  in  the  wrong,  thwart 
him,  and  vindicate  right  and  truth  in 
his  despite^  It  has  been  said  that 
she  is  "  without  feminine  sympathies 
— the  type  of  composed,  majestic, 
and  unrelenting  force  ;  "  §  and  this  is 
so  far  true  that  she  has  certainly  little 
softness,  absolutely  no  weakness,  and 
not  many  distinctly  feminine  charac- 
teristics. But  she  was  recognized, 
like  her  Egyptian  counterpart,  Neith, 
as  the  goddess  of  good  housewifery, 
*'  patronizing  handicraft,  and  expert 
at  the  loom  and  spindle,"  ||  no  less 
than  as  the  wise  directress  of  states- 
men and  warriors.  Undoubtedly,  the 
atmosphere  in  which  she  removed 
was  too  cold,  calm,  and  clear  for  her 
ever  to  have  attached  to  herself  any 
very  large  share  of  human  sympathy ; 
but  she  exercised  an  elevating  influ- 
ence on  the  nobler  spirits  of  both 
sexes,  as  combining  the  three  attri- 
butes of  purity,  strength,  and  wisdom 
in  the  highest  possible  degree,  and  so 
furnishing  at  once  a  model  for  imita- 


*  "  Homer  and  the  Homeric  Age,"  vol.  ii. 
p.  59. 

t  Horn.  "  Iliad,"  ii.  371 ;  iv.  288 ;  vii.  132, 
etc.  ;  "  Odyss."  iv.  341 ;  xvii.  132,  etc. 

J  "  Iliad,"  viii.  30-40. 

§  Grote,  "  History  of  Greece,"  vol.  i.  p.  47. 

U  Ibid. 


tion,  and  a  support  and  stay  for  feeble 
souls  in  the  spirit  world,  where  they 
had  otherwise  little  on  which  they 
could  place  any  firm  reliance.  The 
universally-received  myth  of  Mentor 
and  Telemachus  acted  as  a  strong  re- 
enforcement  to  the  power  of  con- 
science, which  the  young  Greek  felt 
might  be  the  voice  of  Athene  speak- 
ing within  him,  advising  him  for  his 
true  good,  and  pointing  out  to  him 
the  path  of  honor  and  duty.  Athene's 
special  connection  with  Athens  and 
Attica  added  much  to  her  import- 
ance in  the  Greek  religious  system, 
since  it  brought  the  best  minds  and 
most  generous  natures  of  Hellas  pe- 
culiarly under  the  influence  of  a 
thoroughly  high  and  noble  religious 
conception. 

ARTEMIS. 

183.  Artemis  is  altogether  a  shad- 
owy divinity.     She  is  a  "  pale   reflec- 
tion    of     her     brother,"*     Phcebus 
Apollo,  whose  attributes    she    repro- 
duces in  a  subdued  form,  being,   like 
him,  majestic,  pure,  chaste,  a  minis- 
ter of  death,  and  a  dexterous  archer. 
Nothing  is  peculiar  to  her  except  her 
presidency  over  hunting,  which  deter- 
mined  her   general    presentation    to 
the  eye   by  the  Greek  artists.     She 
embodied  and  personified  that  passion 
for  the  chase  which  was  common  to 
the    Hellenes    with   most    energetic 
races.      It    was   supposed    that   she 
dwelt   mainly   upon   earth,    haunting 
the  forests  and  the  mountains,  dressed 
as  a   huntress,  and  accompanied   by 
her  favorite  hounds.     Her  connection 
with   the  moon  was   an  after-thought 
in  the  Greek  mythology,  as  was  that 
of  Apollo   with  the   sun.      It   arose 
mainly  from  the  fact  that  hunters,  to 
be  successful,  had  to  commence  their 
operations  by  night,   and  needed  the 
light  of  the  moon  in  order  to  make 
their  arrangements. 

184.  The  Artemis  of  Ephesus  was 
the  embodiment  of  a  different  idea.t 


*  "  Homer  and  the  Homeric  Age,"  vol.  ii. 

P-  143- 

t  Grote,  "  History  of  Greece,"  vol.  i.  p.  48. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[153]    75 


She  took  the  place  of  the  great  Asi- 
atic Nature-goddess — Cybele,  Rhea, 
Magna  Mater,  Beltis,  Mylitta — and 
had  nothing  in  common  with  the  Ar- 
temis of  Hellas  proper  but  the  name. 
"  Her  image,  shaped  like  a  mummy, 
was  of  black  wood  ;  the  upper  part  of 
the  body  was  ornamented  with  the 
breasts  of  animals,  the  lower  with 
figures  of  them."  *  She  was  a  mere 
impersonation  of  the  principle  of  fe- 
cundity in  nature — "  a  Pantheistic 
deity,  with  more  of  an  Asiatic  than 
Hellenic  character."  f 

APHRODITE. 

185.  Aphrodite  is  the  antithesis 
and  in  some  sort  the  complement,  of 
Athene.  She  is  the  impersonation  of 
all  that  is  soft  and  weak  and  erring 
in  female  nature,  as  Athene  is  of  all 
that  is  high  and  pure  and  strong 
Goddess  of  beauty  and  love,  not,  how- 
ever, of  love  in  its  more  elevated  form, 
but  rather  of  sensual  desire,  she  was 
received  by  the  Greeks  probably  from 
an  Asiatic  source,  but  so  transmuted 
and  Hellenized  as  to  have  become, 
when  we  first  meet  with  her,  a  com- 
pletely national  divinity.!  Hellenic 
in  the  whole  character  of  her  beauty, 
she  is  well  described  by  a  living  Eng- 
lish poet§  in  her  passage  which  is 
eminently  classical  : — 

"  Idalian  Aphrodite  beautiful, 

Fresh  as   the   foam,  new  bathed  in  Paphian 

wells, 

With  rosy  slender  ringers  backward  drew 
From  her  warm  brow  and  bosom  her  deep 

hair 

Ambrosial,  golden  round  her  lucid  throat 
And  shoulder :  from  the  violets   her   light 

foot 

Shone  rosy  white,  and  o'er  her  rounded  form, 
Between  the  shadows  of  the  vine-branches, 
Floated  the  golden  sunlight  as  she  moved." 

Nothing  so  lovely  in  form  and  color 


*  Dollinger, "  Tew  and  Gentile,"  vol.  i.  p.  86. 

t  Ibid. 

\  Mr.  Gladstone  takes  a^  different  view. 
He  regards  the  Aphrodite  of  Homer  as 
scarcely  a  Greek  divinity  ("  Homer  and  the 
Homeric  Age,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  244,  245).  But  to 
me  it  seems  that,  even  in  Homer,  her  char- 
acter is  as  thoroughly  Greek  as  her  name. 

§  See  Tennyson's  "  CEnone,"  11.  170-178. 


and  texture  and  combination  of  rare 
charms,  graced  the  splendid  cham- 
bers of  the  Olympian  court — nothing 
so  ravishing  had  ever  presented  itself 
to  the  vision  of  painter  or  poet.  But 
the  beauty  was  altogether  physical, 
sensuous,  divorced  alike  from  moral 
goodness  and  mental  power.  Silly 
and  childish,  easily  tricked  and  im- 
posed upon,  Aphrodite  is  mentally 
contemptible,  while  morally  she  is 
odious.  Tyrannical  over  the  weak, 
cowardly  before  the  strong,  frail  her- 
self, and  the  persistent  stirrer  up  of 
frailty  in  others,  lazy,  deceitful,  treach- 
erous, selfish,  shrinking  from  the  least 
touch  of  pain,  she  repels  the  moral 
sentiment  with  a  force  almost  equal 
to  that  wherewith  she  attracts  the 
lower  animal  nature.  Hence  the 
Greek  cannot  speak  of  her  without 
the  most  violent  conflict  of  feeling. 
He  is  drawn  to  her,  but  he  detests 
her  ;  he  is  fascinated,  yet  revolted  ;  he 
admires,  yet  he  despises  and  con- 
demns ;  and  his  condemnation,  on 
the  whole,  outweighs  his  admiration. 
He  calls  her 

"  A  goddess  verily  of  many  names — 
Not  Cypris  only,  iDut  dark  Hades,  too, 
And  Force  resistless,  and  mad,  frantic  Rage, 
And  sheer  untempered  Craving,  and  shrill 
Grief."* 

He  allows,  but  he  rebels  against  her 
power  over  him ;  he  protests  even 
when  he  surrenders  himself ;  and 
hence,  on  the  whole,  Aphrodite  exer- 
cises a  less  corrupting  influence  in 
Greece  than  might  have  been  antici- 
pated. That  the  pantheon  should 
contain  a  goddess  of  the  kind  was  of 
course  to  some  extent  debasing.  Bad 
men  could  justify  themselves  by  the 
divine  example,  and  plead  powerless- 
ness  to  resist  a  divine  impulse.  But 
their  conscience  was  not  satisfied ; 
they  felt  they  sinned  against  their 
higher  nature  ;  and  thus,  after  all,  the 
moral  standard  was  not  very  seri- 
ously affected  by  the  existence  of  the 
Cyprean  goddess  among  the  Olympic 
deities. 


Sophocl.  Fragm.  xxiii.  (cd.  Brunei:). 


70    [154] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


HESTIA.  r    -Q       , 

186.  Hestia  is  still  more   shadowy 
than  Artemis.     She  is  in  part  the  fem- 
inine  counterpart  of  Hephaestus,  the 
goddess  of  fire  ;  but  she  is  principally 
the  impersonation  of  the  sacred  char- 
acter   of    each    hearth   and    home, 
whether  domestic,  tribal,  or  national. 
Hestia   presided    over    the     private 
hearths  and  homesteads  of  all  Greeks, 
over  the  Prytaneia  of  cities,  and  over 
the  altars  kept  ablaze  in  the  temples 
which  were  centers  of  confederacies. 
She  invested  them  with  a  sacred  char- 
acter, watched  over  them,  protected 
them.      Her     personality     was     but 
slightly  developed.     Still  she  seems 
to  have  been  regarded  as  possessing, 
to  a  remarkable  extent,  the  qualities 
of  holiness  and  purity ;  and  thus  to 
have  practically  maintained  in  Greek 
domestic  life  a  high  and  pure  stand- 
ard, such  as  has  scarcely  been  much 
exceeded  among  Christians.     She  was 
fabled   to   have   vowed  perpetual  vir- 
ginity ;  and  it  is  clear  that,  together 
with  Athene'  and  Artemis,  she  upheld 
among  the  Greeks  the  idea  of  virginal 
purity  as  a  transcendental   phase  of 
life,  a  moral  perfection   whereto  the 
best  and  purest  might  not  only  aspire, 
but  attain,  as  the  result  of  earnest  en- 
deavor. 

DEMETER. 

187.  Demeter,   the    "Earth-Moth- 
er," was  an  Original  Greek  concep- 
tion, corresponding  to  one   common 
among  the  Oriental   nations,  the  con- 
ception personified  by  Maut  in  Egypt, 
Beltis  or  Mylitta  in  Babylon,  Cybele 
in  Phrygia,  etc.     The  earth  on  which 
man  lives,  and  from  which  he  derives 
the  food  that  sustains  him,  was  viewed 
as  a  kind  and  bountiful  parent — the 
nurse,  the   feeder,  the  supporter,  the 
sustainer  of  mankind.     Personified  as 
a   goddess,  she   demanded   the  wor- 
ship  and  gratitude  of  all,  and   was 
hence  a  universal  deity,  though  spe- 
cially honored  in  certain  places.     In 
the   Greek     religion    JDemeter     was 
closely  connected    with   agriculture, 
since  the.  earth  in  Greece  did  not  sup- 


port men  without  toil.  She  made  the 
Greeks  acquainted  with  the  growing 
of  cereals,  the  operations  of  tillage 
and  bread-making.  Moreover,  as 
agriculture  was  "  the  foundation  of 
all  social  and  political  ordinances, 
and  inseparably  connected  with  the 
introduction  of  peaceable  and  orderly 
ways  of  life,  Demeter,  under  her  title 
of  'Thesmophoros,  was  the  ennobler 
of  mankind,  the  founder  of  civilization 
and  lawgiving."  She  was  thus  more 
in  Greece  than  she  was  in  Asia.  Her 
position  in  the  greatest  of  the  myste- 
ries—the Eleusinian— was  probably 
owing  to  this  double  function,  this 
combination  of  a  Nature-goddess  with 
a  deity  of  law  and  order,  the  power 
that  led  man  on  from  the  simple  no- 
madic condition  to  all  the  refinements 
and  complications  of  advanced  polit- 
ical life. 

. 

"  These  were  the  prime  in  order  and  in  might ; 
The  rest  were  long  to  tell,  though  far  re- 

nown'd, 

Th'  Ionian  gods,  of  Javan's  issue  held 
Gods,  yet  confess'd  later  than  heav'n  and 

earth, 
Their  boasted    parents:    Titan,   Heav'n's 

first-born, 
With  his  enormous  brood,  and  birthright 

seiz'd 

By  younger  Saturn :  he  from  mightier  Jove, 
His   own    and   Reah's  son,   like  measure 

found : 
So  Jove  usurping  reign'd :    these  first  in 

Crete 

And  Ida  known  ;  thence  on  the  snowy  top 
Of  cold  Olympus  rul'd  the  middle  air, 
Their  highest  heav'n ;  or  on  the  Delphian 

t  cliff, 

Or  in  Dodona,  and  through  all  the  bounds 
Of  Doric  land ;  or  who  with  Saturn  old 
Fled  over  Adria  to  th'  Hesperian  fields, 
And  o'er  the  Celtic  roam'd  the  utmost  isles. 
****** 
Nor  had  they  yet  among  the  sons  of  Eve 
Got  them  new  names ;  till  wand'ring  o'er  the 

earth, 
Through  God's  high  suff 'ranee  for  the  trial 

of  man, 

By  falsities  and  lies  the  greatest  part 
Of  mankind  they  corrupted  to  forsake 
God  their  Creator,  and  th'  invisible 
Glory  of  Him  that  made  them  to  transform 
Oft  to  the  image  of  a  brute,  adorn'd 
•With  gay  religions  full  of  pomp  and  gold, 
And  devils  to  adore  for  deities; 
Then  they  were  known  to  men  by  various 

names, 
And  various    idols    through   the   heathen 

world." — 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


1155]    77 


188.  Among  the  deities  external  to 
the  Olympic  circle,  the  most  important 
were  Dionyes,  Leto,  Persephone,  and 
Hades  or  Aidoneus.    Dionysus  is  gen- 
erally admitted  to  have  been  derived 
from"  an  Oriental  source.     The  word 
probably  meant  originally  "the  judge 
of  men/'*  and  referred  to  a  special 
function  of  the  god,  who  was  thought 
to  pass  sentence  on  the  departed  when 
they  reached  the  other  world. 

189.  Essentially,  however,  Dionysus 
was  the  god  of  inebriety,  the  deifica- 
tion, of  drunkenness,  as  Ares  was  of 
violence,    and.  Aphrodite   of  sensual 
desire.     He  was  viewed  as  the  crea- 
tor of  the  vine,  or  at  any  rate  as  its 
introducer  into  Greece;    the  teacher 
of  its  culture,  and  the  discoverer  of 
the  exhilarating  properties  of  its  fruit. 
The  worship  of  Dionysus  was  effected 
by  taking  part  in  his  orgies,  and  these 
were  of  a  furious  and  ecstatic  charac- 
ter, accompanied  with  exciting  music, 
with  wild  dances,  with  shrieks  and 
cries,  and  sometimes  with  bloodshed. 
Both  men  and  women  joined  in  the 
Dionysiac  rites,  the  women  outdoing 
the  men  in  the  violence  of  their  frenzy. 
"  Crowds    of    females,   clothed  with 
fawn-skins,  and  bearing    the    sacred 
thyrsus,  flocked  to   the    solitudes  of 
Parnassus  or  Cithseron  or  Taygetus, 
during  the  consecrated  triennial  pe- 
riod,   passed    the    night    there   with 
torches,  and  abandoned    themselves 
to  demonstrations  of   frantic  excite- 
ment, with  dancing  and  clamorous  in- 
vocation of  the  god.    The  men  yielded 
to  a  similar  impulse  by  noisy  revels 
in  the  streets,  sounding  the  cymbals 
and  tambourine,  and  carrying  the  im- 
age   of    the    god    in    procession."  t 
Every  sort  of  license  and  excess  was 
regarded  as  lawful  on  these  occasions, 
and  the  worship  of  the  deity  was  in- 
complete unless   the  votary  reached 
an    advanced   stage    of   intoxication. 
Dionysiac  festivals  were   fortunately 
not  of  frequent  recurrence,  and  were 
not  everywhere  celebrated  in  the  same 
way.     At  Athens  women  took  no  part 


in  the  Dionysia;  and  with  men  intel- 
lectual contests,  and  the  witnessing  of 
them,  held  the  place  of  the  rude  rev- 
els elsewhere  too  common.  Still  the 
influence  of  Dionysiac  worship  on 
Greece  generally  must  be  regarded  as 
excessively  corrupting,  and  Dionysus 
must  be  viewed  as,  next  to  Aphrodite', 
the  most  objectionable  of  the  Greek 
divinities. 

190.  Leto,  or  Latona,  as  the    Ro- 
mans called  her,  when  they  adopted 
her  into  their  pantheon,  was,  on  the 
contrary,  one  of  the  purer  and  more 
elevating  influences.     She  is  the  wife 
of  Zeus  by  a  title  quite  as  good  as  that 
of  Hera,*  and  is  a  model  of  motherly 
love  and  wifely  purity.     Separate  and 
peculiar  function  she  has  none,  and  it 
is  difficult  to  account  for  her  introduc- 
tion among  the  Olympians.     Perhaps 
she  is  to  be  regarded  as  ideal  woman- 
hood.     Silent,    unobtrusive,    always 
subordinating  herself  to  her  children, 
majestic,  chaste,  kindly,  ready  to  help 
and  tend,  she  is  in  Olympus  what  the 
Greek  wished  his  wife  to  be  in  his  own' 
home,  her  very  shadowiness  according 
with  the  Greek  notion  of  womanly  per- 
fection.t    Mr.  Gladstone  suggests  that 
she  is  a  traditional  deity,  representing 
the  woman  through  whom  man's  re- 
demption was  to  come ;  $    but  there 
scarcely  seems  sufficient  foundation 
for  this  view,  which  is  not  supported 
by  any  analogies  in  the  mythologies 
of  other  nations. 

191.  Persephone',  the  Roman  Pro- 
serpine, was  the  queen  of  the  dead  ; 
far  more  than  her  shadowy  husband, 
Hades,  the  real  ruler  of  the  infernal 
realm.     She  was  represented  as  se- 
verely pure  and  chaste,  even  having 
become  a  wife  against  her  will,  and  as 
awful  and  terrible,  but  not  cruel.    She 
occupied  no  very  important  post   in 
the    religion,    since   her   sphere   was 
wholly  the  nether  world,  which  only 


*  See  the  "Transactions  of  the  Society  of 
Biblical  Archaeology,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  33,  34. 
t  Grote,  "  History  of  Greece,"  vol.  i.  p.  26. 


*  Hesiod  says  that  she  became  the  wife  of 
Zens  before  Hera  ("  Theogony,"  11.  918-221). 

t  Compare  the  line,  of  Sophocles — 
"  O  woman,  silence  is  the  woman's  crown." ' 
(Ajax,  1.  293.) 

\  "  Homer  and  the  Homeric  Age,"  vol.  ii. 
P-  153- 


78    [156] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


very  slightly  engaged  the  attention  of 
the  Hellenes.  Hades,  or  Aidoneus, 
had  a  high  rank,  as  the  brother  of 
Zeus,  and  in  some  sort  his  co-equal ; 
but  he  was  as  shadowy  as  the  realm 
over  which  he  presided,  and  to  most 
Greeks  was  simply  magni  nominis  -um- 
bra— "the  shadow  of  a  great  name," 
which  they  must  reverence  when  they 
heard  it,  but  not  a  deity  who  to  any 
extent  occupied  their  thoughts,  or  re- 
ceived their  worship.*  It  would  be 
easy  to  occupy  many  more  pages  with 
the  Greek  minor  deities,  but  our  lim- 
its compel  us  to  refrain,  and  to  turn 
at  this  point  from  the  objects  to  the 
character  of  the  worship,  and  to  the 
real  practical  influence  of  their  religion 
upon  the  Greek  race. 

192.  In  the  main,  the  Greek  wor- 
ship was  of  a  joyous,  pleasant,  and 
lightsome  kind.  The  typical  Greek 
was  devoid  of  any  deep  sense  of  sin — 
thought  well  of  himself — did  not  think 
very  highly  of  the  gods,  and  consid- 
ered that,  so  long  as  he  kept  free  from 
grave  and  heinous  offenses,  either 
against  the  moral  law  or  against  the 
amour-propre  of  the  deities,  he  had 
little  to  fear,  while  he  had  much  to 
hope,  from  them.  He  prayed  and  of- 
fered sacrifice,  not  so  much  in  the 
way  of  expiation,  or  to  deprecate  God's 
wrath,  as  in  the  way  of  natural  piety, 
to  ask  for  blessings  and  to  acknowl- 
edge them.  He  made  vows  to  the 
gods  in  sickness,  danger,  or  difficulty, 
and  was  careful  to  perform  his  vow 
on  escape  or  recovery.  His  house 
was  full  of  shrines,  on  which  he  con- 
tinually laid  small  offerings,  to  secure 
the  favor  and  protection  of  his  special 
patron  deities.  Plato  says  that  he 
prayed  every  morning  and  evening, 
and  also  concluded  every  set  meal 
with  a  prayer  or  hymn.  But  these 
devotions  seem  not  to  have  been  very 
earnest  or  deep,  and  were  commonly 


*  Compare  Dollinger,  "Jew  and  Gentile," 
vol.  i.  p.  93 :  "  The  people  did  not  troubl^ 
themselves  much  about  Harks,  and  they  saw 
no  altars  dedicated  to  him.  There  was  one 
image  of  him  at  Athens,  but  he  had  hardly 
anywhere  a  regular  worship." 


hurried  through  in  a  perfunctory  man- 
ner. 

193.  Practically,  the  religious  wor- 
ship of  the  Greeks  consisted  mainly 
in  attendance  on  festivals  which  might 
be   Pan-Hellenic,  political,  tribal,  or 
peculiar    to   a   guild    or   a  phratria. 
Each  year  brought  round  either  one 
or  two  of  the  great  panegyrics — the 
festivals  of  the  entire  Greek  race  at 
Olympia  and  Delphi,  at  Nemea  and 
the  Isthmus  of  Corinth.     There  were 
two  great  Ionic  festivals  annually,  one 
at  Delos,  and  the  other  at  the  Panio- 
nium  near  Mycale.     Each  state   and 
city  throughout  Greece  had  its  own 
special  festivals,  Dionysia,  Eleusinia, 
Panathencea,     Carneia,     Hyakinthia, 
Apaturia,   etc.      Most  of  these  were 
annual,  and  some  lasted  several  clays. 
A    Greek    had    no    "Sunday"— no 
sacred  clay  recurring  at  set  intervals,  ,. 
on  which  his  thoughts  were  bound  to 
be  directed  to  religion  ;  but  so  long  a 
time  as  a  week  scarcely  ever  passed 
without  his   calendar  calling  him  to 
some    sacred    observance    or   other, 
some  feast  or  ceremony,  in  honor  of 
some  god  or  goddess,  or  in  commem- 
oration of  some   event  important  in 
the  history  of  mankind,*  or  in  that  of 
his  race,  or  of  his  city.     And  these 
festivals  were  highly  attractive  to  him. 
Generally  they  were  joyful  occasions 
from    first    to    last,   celebrated  with 
music,  and  processions,  with  gymnas- 
tic or  orchestral  competitions,  or  with 
theatrical   contests.     Ordinarily   they 
include  sacrifice,  and  feasting  upon 
the  victims  sacrificed.      Even   when 
they  were  professedly  of  a  mournful 
character,  like  the   Spartan  Hyakin- 
thia, the  opening  days  of  which  were 
days  of  sadness  and  of  gloom,  they 
commonly    concluded    with    a   more 
genial    time — a   time    of   banqueting 
and  dancing.    Accordingly,  the  Greek 
looked  forward  to  his  holy  days  as 
true   holidays,    and   was    pleased    to 
combine  duty  with  pleasure  by  taking 
his  place  in  the  procession,  or  the 


* E.g.,  the  Hydrophoria,  kept  in  commem- 
oration of  those  who  perished  in  the  Flood 
of  Deucalion,  the  Greek  representation  of 
the  Noachical  Deluge. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[157]    79 


temple,  or  the  theatre,  to  which  incli- 
nation and  religion  alike  called  him. 
Thousands  and  tens  of  thousands 
flocked  to  each  of  the  great  Pan-Hel- 
lenic gatherings,  delighting  in  the 
splendor  and  excitement  of  the 
scene,  in  the  gay  dresses,  the  magnif- 
icent equipages,  the  races,  the  games, 
the  choric,  and  other  contests. 
"  These  festivals,"  as  has  been  well 
observed,*  "  were  considered  as  the 
very  cream  of  the  Greek  life,  their 
periodical  recurrence  being  expected 
with  eagerness  and  greeted  with 
joy."  Similarly,  though  to  a  minor 
extent,  each  national  or  even  tribal 
gathering  was  an  occasion  of  enjoy- 
ment ;  cheerfulness,  hilarity,  some- 
times an  excessive  exhilaration,  pre- 
vailed ;  and  the  religion  of  the 
Greeks,  in  these  its  most  striking  and 
obvious  manifestations,  was  altogether 
bright,  festive,  and  pleasurable. 

194.  But,  just  as  sunshine  cannot 
exist  without  shadow,  so  even  the 
Greek  religion,  bright  as  it  was,  had 
its  dark  side.  Calamities  befell  na- 
tions, families,  or  individuals,  and 
were  attributed  to  an  offended  god  or 
a  cruel  fury.  A  sense  of  guilt  occa- 
sionally visited  those  who  had  com- 
mitted great  and  flagrant  crimes,  as 
perjury,  blasphemy,  robbery  of  tem- 
ples, incest,  violation  of  the  right  of 
asylum,  treachery  toward  a  guest- 
friend,  and  the  like.  A  load  under 
these  circumstances  lay  upon  the  con- 
science ;  all  the  horrors  of  remorse 
were  felt ;  avenging  fiends  were  be- 
lieved to  haunt  and  torture  the  guilty 
one,  who  sometimes  earnestly  sought 
relief  for  a  term  of  years,  and  sought 
in  vain.  There  were,  indeed,  rites  of 
expiation  appropriate  to  different  oc- 
casions ;  most  sins  could  be  atoned 
for  in  some  manner  or  other ;  but  the 
process  was  generally  long  and  pain- 
ful ;  t  and  there  were  cases  where  the 
persistent  anger  of  the  fierce  Erinyes 
could  not  in  any  way  be  appeased. 


*  Doliinger,  "  Jew  and  Gentile,"  vol.  i.  p. 
238. 

^t  See  the  "Eumenides"  of  ^Eschylus, 
where  Orestes,  however,  is  at  last  purged  of 
his  guilt. 


When  a  nation  had  sinned,  human 
sacrifices  were  not  unfrequently  pre- 
scribed ^as  the  only  possible  propitia- 
tion ;  *  if  the  case  were  that  of  an  in- 
dividual, various  modes  of  purification 
were  adopted,  ablutions,  fastings,  sac- 
rifices, and  the  like.  According  to 
Plato,  however,  the  number  of  those 
who  had  any  deep  sense  of  their  guilt 
was  few  :  most  men,  whatever  crimes 
they  committed,  found  among  the 
gods  examples  of  similar  acts,f  and 
thought  no  great  blame  would  attach 
to  them  for  their  misconduct.  At  the 
worst,  if  the  gods  were  angered  by 
their  [behavior,  a  few  offerings  would 
satisfy  them,  and  set  things  straight,^ 
leaving  the  offenders  free  to  repeat 
their  crimes,  and  so  to  grow  more  and 
more  hardened  in  iniquity. 

195.  At  the  position  which  the 
"  mysteries  "  occupied  in  the  Greek 
religion  it  is  impossible  for  us,  in 
this  slight  sketch,  to  do  more  than 
glance.  The  mysteries  were  certain 
secret  rites  practiced  by  voluntary 
associations  of  individuals,  who 
pledged  themselves  not  to  reveal  to  the 
uninitiated  anything  which  they  saw 
or  heard  at  the  secret  meetings.  They 
were  usually  connected  with  the  wor- 
ship of  some  particular  god,  and  con- 
sisted mainly  in  symbolical  represen- 
tations of  the  adventures  and  circum- 
stances connected  with  the  god  in  the 
mythology.  They  contained  nothing 
that  was  contradictory  to  the  popular 
religion,  and  little  that  was  explana- 
tory of  it.  The  various  mysteries  had 
each  its  own  apparatus  of  symbols  and 
formularies,  by  which  the  mysta  knew 
each  other,  as  freemasons  do  ;  but 
they  only  vaguely  hinted  at  any  theo- 
logical dogmas  or  opinions.  The 
Greek  greatly  affected  these  secret 
rites ;  and  it  is  said  that  but  few 
Greeks  were  not  initiated  in  some 
mystery  or  other. §  "  Their  attrac- 
tion lay  in  their  veil  of  secrecy,  trans- 


*  Even  as'  late  as  the  time  of  Solon,  Epi- 
menides  prescribed  a  human  sacrifice  at 
Athens. 

t  Plato,  "  Republic,"  ii.  §  17. 


193- 


Dollinger,  "  Jew  and  Gentile,"  vol.  i.  p. 


80    [158] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


parent  though  it  was,  in  the  variety  of 
feelings  brought  into  play  by  lively 
dramatic  representations,  in  the  rapid 
transition  from  anxiety  and  suspense 
to  serenity  and  joy,  the  combination 
of  all  arts  and  artistic  enjoyments, 
of  music  and  song,  the  mimic  dance, 
the  brilliant  lighting- up,  and  effective 
decoration."  *  It  can  scarcely,  how- 
ever, be  said  that  the  mysteries  exer- 
cised any  salutary  or  elevating  influ- 
ence on  the  Greeks  generally.  The 
moral  conduct  of  the  initiated  was  no 
better  than  that  of  others;  and  Plato 
thought  that  participation  in  the  Ele- 
usinia  served  only  to  strengthen  and 
make  a  man  secure  in  jinrighteous- 
ness.f 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

RELIGION   OF  THE    ANCIENT    ROMANS. 

"  Sua  cuique  religio  civitati,  nostra  tiobis." 

CICERO,  Pro  Flacc.  28. 

. 

196.  TIME  was,  and  not  a  very  dis- 
tant time,  when  it  was  regularly  Incul- 
cated on  the  youthful  mind  in  our  pub- 
lic schools  and  other  great  educational 
establishments,  that  one  and  the  same 
religious  system  prevailed  alike  in 
Italy  and  Greece,  among  the  Romans 
and  the  Hellenes;  two  branches,  as 
it  was  thought,  of  a  single  original 
people.  Such  phrases  as  "  classical 
mythology,"  "  the  religion  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,"  "  the  deities  of 
the  classical  nations,"  were  frequent 
alike  on  the  lips  of  teachers,  and  in 
the  language  of  authorized  text-books  ; 
the  Grecian  divinities  were  spoken  of 
almost  universally  by  their  (supposed) 
equivalent  Latin  names ;  and  the 
youth  would  have  been  considered 
offensively  pedantic  who  should  have 
hesitated  to  render  "iipi  by  "Juno," 
or  ^fifjrrjp  by  "Ceres."  But  within 
the  last  twenty  or  thirty  years  a  more 
jus-t  appreciation  of  the  facts  of  the 

*  Dollinger,  "  Jew  and  Gentile,"  vol.  i.  p.  196. 
t  "  Republic,"  ii.  §  6  (quoted  by  Dollinger, 
p.  200). 


case  has  sprung  up  ;  the  careful  in- 
vestigation which  has  been  made  of 
the  "  origines  "  both  of  Greece  and 
Rome  has  shown,  first,  that  the  two 
nations  were  but  remotely  connected 
in  race,  and  secondly,  that  their  re- 
ligious systems  were  markedly  and 
strikingly  different.  Any  review  of 
the  religious  systems  of  the  ancient 
world  that  is  attempted  at  the  present 
day,  necessarily  and  as  a  matter  of 
course,  treats  separately  the  religion 
of  the  Hellenes  and  that  of  the  Ro- 
mans ;  and  we  are  thus  bound,  be- 
fore our  task  can  be  regarded  as  com- 
plete, to  append  to  the  account  which 
we  have  already  given  of  the  Hellenic 
religious  system  a  chapter  on  the 
"  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Romans." 

197.  Following   the  method  which 
we   have   hitherto  for  the  most  part 
pursued,    we    propose    to    consider, 
first,  the  objects  of  worship  at  Rome, 
and  secondly,  the  character   and   pe- 
culiarities of  the  worship  which  was 
paid  to  them.     We  may  note,  en  pass- 
ant, that  the  religion  was  a  polytheism, 
in  its  general  character  similar  to  that 
of   Greece,  but   distinguished   by  its 
comparatively  scanty  development  of 
the  polytheistic  idea  in  respect  of  Na- 
ture and  the  parts  of  Nature,  and  its 
ample  development  of  that    idea    in 
connection  with  human  life,  its  actions, 
parts,  and  phases. 

198.  The   great  gods  (Di  majores) 
of   Rome   were   always  regarded   as 
twelve  in  number,  though  at  different 
periods  of  Roman  history   the   enu- 
meration of  "  the  twelve  "  would  have 
been  different.     If  we  go  back  to  the 
very    earliest — almost    pre-historic — 
time,    we    may    perhaps    name    the 
following  as   **  the    twelve "    of    the 
primitive      system  —  Jupiter,      Juno 
(=  Diana),  Minerva,  Mars,  Bellona, 
Vesta,    Ceres,    Saturnus7~  Ops,  "Her- 
cules,   Mercurius,    Neptune.     A   few 
words  must  be  said  concerning  each 
of  these. 

JUPITER. 

199.  The    Jupiter    (jv- PATER),   or 
"  Father  Jove,"  of  the  Romans  bore 
a  real  resemblance  to  the  Greek  Zeus, 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[159]    Bi 


with  whose  name  he  is  etymologically 
identical.*  The  idea  of  paternity, 
attached  to  his  name  in  ordinary  par- 
lance, implied  the  same  notion  which 
we  find  in  the  Hellenic  system,  viz., 
that  he  was  "  the  father  of  gods  and 
men  "  (hominum  sator  atque  deorum, 
Virg.).  He  had  a  temple  from  the 
very  earliest  times  on  the  Capitoline 
hill,  where  he  was  worshiped  in 
combination  with  Juno  and  Minerva, 
and  a  High  Priest,  the  "  Flamen 
Dialis,"  who  maintained  his  cult  with 
perpetual  burnt  sacrifice.  Originally, 
there  must  have  been  in  the  concep- 
tion of  Jupiter  a  latent  monotheism  ; 
but  long  before  the  first  settlement 
was  made  by  any  Latins  in  Italy,  this 
idea  seems  to  have  evaporated ;  and 
to  the  Romans  of  the  earliest  times 
whereof  we  have  any  trace,  Jove  was 
no  more  than  one  god  out  of  many  f 
— the  god,  especially,  of  the  air,  the 
sky,  the  firmament — who  sent  down 
lightning  from  above,  gave  rain,  di- 
rected the  flight  of  birds,  and  (as  Ve- 
Jovis)  impregnated  the  atmosphere 
with  fevers  and  pestilence.  He  was 
the  acknowledged  head  of  the  Roman 
pantheon,  only  preceded  sometimes 
in  solemn  invocations  $  by  Janus, 
"the  spirit  of  opening,"  who  neces- 
sarily presided  over  beginnings  of  all 
kinds.  A  sort  of  general  superintend- 
ence over  human  affairs  was  assigned 
to  him  ;  he  was  viewed  as  punishing 
impiety  in  general,  and  perjury  in  par- 
ticular ;  he  knew  the  future,  and  could 
reveal  it ;  he  guarded  the  rights  of 
property,  and  was  viewed  as  a  sort  of 
guardian  deity  of  the  Roman  people 
and  state.  He  has  been  called,  "the 
genius  of  the  Roman  people  ;  "  §  but 
this  conception  of  him  is  too  nar- 
row. He  was  certainly  much  more 
than  that.  If  not  the  "  universal  lord," 


*  Both  names  are,  of  course,  closely  allied 
to  the  Sanskrit  "  Dyaus,"  "  heaven,"  or  "  the 
sky."  (See  Max  Muller,  "  Science  of  Re- 
ligion," p.  172.) 

t  This  is  applied  in  the  ordinary  append- 
age to  his  name,  "  Optimus  maximus,"  "the 
best  and  greatest  "  (of  the  gods). 

J  Liv.  viii.  9 

§  Mommsen,  "  History  of  Rome."  vol.  i. 
p,  176,  E.  T. 


which  some  have  considered  him,  he 
was   at   any   rate    a   great   god—  t 
highest  conception  of  deiti/Whieh 
ever  reached  by  the  Rom 


JUNO. 

200.  Juno  is  a  mere  female  Jupiter, 
possessing  no  substantive  or  separate 
character,  unless  it  be  that  of  a  spe- 
cial protectress  of  women,  and  more 
particularly  of  matrons.  She  stands 
to  Jupiter  as  Fauna  to  Faunus,  Luna  to 
Lunus,  Amente  to  Ammon.  She  pre- 
sided especially  over  marriages  and 
births,  being  invoked  as  «*  Lucina," 
or  "  she  that  brings  to  light,"  when 
the  birth  drew  nigh,  and  as  "  Pro- 
nuba"  when  marriage  approached. 
Identical  with  Diana  originally  (for 
Diana  is  to  A/df  as  Juno  to  z^f),  she 
came  gradually  to  be  considered  a 
distinct  and  separate  deity  —  the  dis- 
tinction becoming  a  contrast  in  the 
later  times,  when  Diana  was  identi- 
fied with  the  Grecian  Artemis.  As 
Jupiter  was  the  "  king,"  so  Juno  was 
the  "  queen  of  heaven  "  (regina  ca>li 
or  cceloruni).  She  was  invoked 
tinder  many  names  besides  those 
already  mentioned.  She  was 
"  Virginalis,"  as  protecting  maidens  ; 
"  Matrona,"  as  the  patroness  of 
married  women  ;  "  Opigena,"  "  help- 
giving  ;  "  and  "  Sospita,"  "  preserv- 
ing," as  general  aider  of  the  female 
sex.  A  great  festival  was  held  in 
her  honor  every  year  on  the  ist 
of  March,  which  was  called  Matro- 
nalia,  and  was  attended  by  all  Roman 
matrons,  who  regarded  her  as  at  her 
pleasure  either  giving  or  withholding 
offspring.  It  was  perhaps  an  accident 
which  gave  Juno  the  presidency  over 
money,  the  Romans  having  found  it 
convenient  to  establish  their  first  mint 
in  the  vicinity  of  her  temple  on  the 
Capitoline  hill,  where  she  was  wor- 
shiped as  Juno  Moneta,  or  "  Juno 
the  admonitress." 


MINERVA. 

2oi.    Minerva,   though    worshiped 
n  common  by  the  Etruscans  and  the 


82     [160] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


Romans,  appears  by  the  etymology 
of  her  name  to  have  been  essentially 
a  Latin  deity.  She  is  the  goddess  of 
mind  (metis)  and  memory  (memini,  re- 
miniscor) — u  the  thinking,  calculating, 
inventive  power  personified."  *  Her 
worship  was  closely  connected  with 
that  of  Jupiter  and  Juno,  the  three 
together  forming  the  Capitoline  Triad, 
who  alone  had  temples  on  that  hill  in 
the  early  times.  In  the  great  lectis- 
ternium  called  epulumjovis,  the  images 
of  the  three  were  brought  out  and 
feasted  together.  Minerva  was  the 
patroness  both  of  the  fine  arts  and  of 
the  various  handicrafts — the  goddess 
of  sculptors,  painters,  musicians,  poets, 
.physicians,  weavers,  dyers,  carpenters, 
smiths,  etc.,  etc.  Each  man  regarded 
his  talents  as  coming  especially  from 
her ;  and  as  success  in  war  is  the  fruit 
of  prudence,  perseverance,  contriv- 
ance, stratagem,  as  much  as  of  courage 
and  sheer  brute  force,  Minerva  was 
in  one  respect  f  a  war-goddess,  and 
represented  with  a  helmet,  shield,  and 
coat  of  mail.  The  chief  festival  cele- 
brated in  honor  of  Minerva  was  the 
Quin quatrus  or  Quinquatria,  which 
lasted  five  days — from  the  iQth  of 
March  to  the  2^d. 

MARS. 

202.  In  Mavors  or  Mars  we  have 
"the  central  object,  not  only  of  Ro- 
man, but  Italian,  worship  in  gen- 
eral "  $  — -the  real  main  object  of 
public  religious  regard  throughout  the 
greater  portion  of  the  peninsula. 
Originally,  perhaps,  Maurs  (Mors), 
"  the  killing  god,"  and  therefore,  like 
Siva  the  Destroyer,  attached  to  no 
special  department  of  human  life,  he 
came  by  degrees  to  have  the  most  de- 
structive of  human  occupations,  war, 
assigned  to  him  as  his  especial  field, 
and  to  be  regarded  as  the  god  who 
went  out  to  battle  at  the  head  of  each 


army— invisibly  but  really  present — 
who  hurled  his  spear  at  the  foe,  struck 
terror    into    them,    disordered    their 
ranks,  and  gave  to  his  worshipers  the 
victory.      Practically  ousting  Jupiter 
from  the  regards  of  men,  he  became 
j  Marspiter*  (Maspiter,  "  Father  Mars," 
j  the  god  to  whom  alone  they   looked 
|  for  protection).     The  first  month   of 
j  the  year  was  dedicated  to  him,  and 
|  thence  took  the  name  which  it  bears 
!  in  most  modern  European  languages. 
I  The  great  muster-ground  of  the  peo- 
!  pie  before    they    went    out    to    war 
became  the  "  Campus  Martins  ;  "  and 
war  itself  was  sometimes  designated 
by  his  name,  as  intellectual  ability  was 
by  that  of  Minerva.     As  marching  at 
the  head  of   Roman   troops,  he  was 
j  called    Gradivus,  as    avenging   them 
|  upon  their  enemies,  Uttor.     Like  Ju- 
I  piter,  he   had   his    High    Priest — the 
"  Flamen  Martialis  " — whose  business 
it  was  to  present  to  him  burnt  offer- 
j  ings.     He  had   also    attached  to   his 
I  worship  from  very  ancient  times  a  col- 
1  lege     of     priests     known     as     Salii 


*  Schmidt,  in  Dr.  Smith's  "  Diet,  of  Greek 
and  Roman  Antiquities,"  vol.  ii.  p.  1090. 

t  So  Mommsen,  "  History  of  Rome,"  vol. 
i.  p.  175,  E.  T. 

J  So  Momir:S2n,  "  History  of  Rome,"  vol. 
i.  p.  175,  E.  T. 


"  dancers "),  who  performed  war- 
|  dances  in  his  honor,  clad  in  ar- 
mor, and  carrying  the  sacred  shields 
supposed  to  have  fallen  from 
heaven,  and  called  ancilia.  The  wolf, 
the  horse,  and  the  woodpecker  were 
sacred  to  him.  A  great  festival  was 
held  in  his  honor  at  the  beginning  of 
each  year,  commencing  on  the  ist 
March. 

BELLONA. 

203.  Bellona,  or  Duellona,f  stood  to 
Mars  as  Juno  to  Jupiter,  except  that 
there  was  no  etymological  connection 
between  the  names.  She  was  the 
goddess  of  war  (be Hum  or  duelling 
was  spoken  of  as  the  wife  or  sister  of 
Mars,  and  had  a  temple  in  the  Cam- 
pus Martius,  where  the  ceremony  of 
proclaiming  war  was  performed.  A 
college  of  priests,  called  Bellonarii, 
conducted  her  worship,  and  were 
bound,  when  they  offered  sacrifice  in 


*  Liv.  viii.  9. 

t  Fabretti,  "  Corpus  Inscr.  Italicarum,"  p. 

323- 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[161J 


her  honor,  to  wound  their  own  arms 
or  legs,  and  either  to  offer  up  upon 
her  altar  the  blood  which  flowed  from 
their  wounds,  or  else  to  swallow  it 
themselves.  The  24th  of  March  was 
especially  appointed  for  these  cere- 
monies, and  for  this  reason  was  known 
in  the  Roman  calendar  as  the  "  day 
of  blood  "  (dies  sanguinis).  Bellona 
was  represented  as  armed  with  a 
bloody  scourge,*  and  was  solemnly 
invoked  in  dangerous  crises  by  gen- 
erals on  the  battle  field,  t 


VESTA, 


204.  Vesta,  identical  with  the  Gre- 
cian Hestia  (*  EGTEO),  was  an  ancient 
goddess,  whose  worship  the  Latins 
brought  with  them  into  Italy  from 
their  primitive  settlements  in  the  far 
East.  In  her  earliest  conception,  she 
was  the  goddess  of  the  human  dwell- 
ing (vas,  vasana,  Sanskr.)  generally  : 
but,  according  to  Roman  ideas,  it  was 
the  national,  rather  than  the  domestic, 
hearth  over  which  she  presided.  Her 
temple  was  one  of  the  most  ancient  in 
Rome.  It  lay  at  the  northern  foot  of 
the  Palatine  hill,  a  little  east  of  the 
Forum,  and  was  in  the  immediate  vi- 
cinity of  a  sacred  grove,  also  dedi- 
cated to  Vesta.  The  regular  worship 
of  the  goddess  was  entrusted  to  a  col- 
lege of  six  women,  known  as  "  Vestal 
Virgins "  ( Virgines  Vestales),  whose 
special  duty  it  was  to  preserve  the  sa- 
cred fire  upon  the  altar  which  repre- 
sented the  national  hearthstone,  and 
not  to  allow  it  ever  to  be  extinguished. 
They  dwelt  together  in  a  cloister  (atri- 
um) a  little  apart  from  the  temple, 
under  the  presidency  of  the  eldest 
sister  (  Vestalis  maxima)  and  under  the 
superintendence  and  control  of  the 
college  of  Pontifices.  Besides  watch- 
ing the  fire,  they  had  to  present  offer- 
ings to  Vesta  at  stated  times,  and  to 
sprinkle  and  purify  the  shrine  each 
morning  with  water  from  the  Egerian 
spring.  A  festival  was  held  in  honor 
of  the  goddess  annually  on  the  Qth  of 


*  Virgil,  "  JEn."  viii.  703  ;  Lucan,  "  Phars." 
vii.  569. 

t  Liv.  viii.  9;  x.  19. 


June,  at  which  no  man  might  be  pres- 
ent, but  which  was  attended  by  the 
Roman  matrons  generally,  who  walked 
in  procession  with  bare  feet  from  the 
various  quarters  of  the  city  to  the 
temple.  There  was  no  image  in  the 
temple  of  Vesta,  the  eternal  fire  be- 
ing regarded  as  symbolizing  her  suf- 
ficiently. 

• 


CERES. 


205.  A  god,  Cerus,  and  a  goddess 
Cerie,  are  found  to  have  been  wor- 
shiped by  the  early  Italians  ;  *  and  it 
is  a  reasonable  conjecture  that  these 
names  are  connected  with  the  Latin 
"  Ceres."     The  Latin  writers  derived 
that  word  either  from  gero  or  creoft 
and  considered  that  it  was  given  to 
mark  that  the  deity  in  question  was 
the  "bringer,"  or  "creator"  of  those 
fruits  of  the  earth  on  which  the  life  of 
man   mainly  depends.     According  to 
some,  Ceres  was  the  same  as  Tellus  ; 
but  this  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
the  case   anciently.      Ceres  was   the 
goddess  of  agriculture,  and  was  con- 
nected  from  a  very  early  date   with 
Liber,  the  Latin  Bacchus,  the  god  of 
the   vineyard.      That    Ceres    should 
have  been  one  of  the  "great  divini- 
ties," marks  strongly  the  agricultural 
character  of  the  early  Roman   state, 
which  did  not  give  to  Liber,  or  to  Po- 
mona, any  such  position.      The  wor- 
ship of  Ceres  merged  after  a  time  in 
that  of  Demeter,  whose  peculiar  rites 
were  imported  either  from  Velia  or 
from  Sicily. 

SATURNUS. 

206.  Saturnus  was  properly  the  god 
of  sowing,  but  was  regarded,  like  Ce- 
res, as  a  general  deity  of  agriculture, 
and  was  represented  with  a  pruning- 
hook  in  his  hand,  and  with  wool  about 
his  feet.     His  statue  was  made  hollow, 


*Fabretti,  "Corpus  Ins.  Italic."  pp.  829, 
830. 

t  Varro  ("  De  Ling.  Lat."  v.  64),  and  Cic- 
ero ("  De  Nat.  Deor."  ii.  26),  derive  it  from 
gero :  Servius  ("  Comm.  ad  Virg.  Georg."  i. 
6),  and  Macrobius  ("  Saturn."  i.  18)  from 


84    [162] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


and  was  filled  with  olive  oil,  signifi- 
cant of  the  "  fatness  "  and  fertility 
which  he  spread  over  the  land.  His 
festival,  the  Saturnalia,  held  in  De- 
cember, from  the  lyth  to  the  24th, 
was  a  sort  of  harvest-home,  commem- 
orative of  the  conclusion  of  all  the  la- 
bors of  the  year,  and  was  therefore 
celebrated  with  jocund  rites,  mirth, 
and  festivity,  an  intermixture  of  all 
ranks  upon  equal  terms,  and  an  inter- 
change of  presents.  The  temple  of 
Saturn  at  Rome  stood  at  the  foot  of 
the  Capitoline  hill,  and  was  assigned 
to  a  remote  antiquity,  though  with 
variations  as  to  the  exact  date.  It 
was  used  as  a  record  office,  and  also 
as  the  public  treasury,  which  was  re- 
garded as  mainly  rilled  by  the  produce 
of  agricultural  industry.  The  identi- 
fication of  Saturnus  with  the  Grecian 
Cronus  was  a  foolish  fancy  of  the 
Hellenizing  period,  the  truth  being 
that  "  there  is  no  resemblance  what- 
ever between  the  attributes  of  the  two 
deities."  * 


OPS. 

207.  With  Saturn  must  be  placed 
Ops,  who  was  sometimes  called  his 
wife,  and  whose  worship  certainly 
stood  in  a  very  close  connection  with 
his.  Ops  was  properly  the  divinity 
of  field-labor  (opus,  opera)  ;  but  as 
such  labor  is  productive  of  wealth. 
Ops  came  to  be  also  the  goddess  of 
plenty  and  of  riches,  and  her  name  is 
the  root-element  in  such  words  as 
opimus,  opulcntus,  inops,  and  the  like. 
She  was  generally  worshiped  to- 
gether with  Saturn,  and  had  temples 
in  common  with  him ;  but  still  she 
had  her  own  separate  sanctuary  on 
the  Capitoline  hill,t  where  honors 
were  paid  to  her  apart  from  any  other 
deity.  Her  festival,  the  Opalia,  fell 
on  December  i9th,  or  the  third  day  of 
the  Saturnalia,  and  was  thus  practi- 
cally merged  in  that  of  the  god  of  agri- 
culture. Ops,  like  Ceres,  is  some- 
times confounded  with  Tellus,  but  the 

*  Schmidt,  in  Smith's  "  Diet,  of  Greek  and 
Roman  Biog."  vol.  iii.  p.  726. 
t  Liv.  xxxix.  22. 


three  goddesses  were  to  the  Latin 
mind  distinct,  Tellus  being  a  personi- 
fication of  the  earth  itself,  Ceres  of 
the  productive  power  in  nature,  which 
brings  forth  fruits  out  of  the  earth, 
and  Ops  of  the  human  labor  without 
which  the  productive  power  runs  to 
waste,  and  is  insufficient  for  the  suste- 
nance of  human  life. 

HERCULES. 

208.  The  near  resemblance  of  Her- 
cules to  Heracles  led,  almost  neces- 
sarily, to  the  idea,  everywhere  preva- 
lent until  recently,  that  the  two  gods 
were  identical,  and  that  therefore 
either  Hercules  was  an  ancient  deity 
common  to  the  Latins  with  the  Hel- 
lenes before  the  former  migrated  into 
Italy,  or  else  that  he  was  an  importa- 
tion from  Greece,  introduced  at  a 
comparatively  late  period.  Recently, 
however,  the  etymological  connection 
of  the  two  names  has  been  question- 
ed, and  it  has  been  suggested  *  that 
Hercules  is,  like  Ceres,  and  Saturn, 
and  Ops,  and  Mars,  and  Minerva,  a 
genuine  Italic  god,  quite  unconnected 
with  Heracles,  who  is  a  genuine  Hel- 
lenic divinity.  The  root  of  the  name 
Hercules  has  been  found  in  hsrcus 
(epx°i)  "  a  fence  "  or  "  enclosure," 
whence  hercere  or  arcere,  "  to  ward  off," 
"  keep  back,"  "  shield."  Hercules, 
whose  worship  was  certainly  as  an- 
cient at  Rome  as  that  of  any  other 
deity,  would  thus  be  "  the  god  of  the 
enclosed  homestead,"  and  thence  in 
general  "  the  god  of  property  and 
gain."  f  He  was  regarded  as  presid- 
ing over  faith,  the  basis  of  the  social 
contract,  and  of  all  dealings  between 
man  and  man,  and  hence  was  known 
as  Deusfidi-us,  "  the  god  of  good  faith," 
who  avenged  infractions  of  it.  In  the 
early  times  he  seems  to  have  had  no 
temple  at  Rome  ;  but  his  Great  Altar 
in  the  cattle-market  was  one  of  the 
most  sacred  sites  in  the  city  ;  $  oaths 
were  sworn  there,  and  contracts  con- 


*  Mommsen,  "  History  of   Rome,"  vol.  i. 
p.  174. 
t  Ibid. 
|  See  Liv.  i.  7  ;  ix.  29. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[103]    85 


eluded  ;  nor  was  it  unusual  for  Roman 
citizens  to  devote  to  it  a  tenth  part  of 
their  property,  for  the  purpose  of  ob- 
taining the  god's  favor,  or  for  the 
fulfillment  of  a  vow.  The  worship  of 
Hercules  was  not  exclusively  Roman, 
not  even  Latin,  but  Italic.  He  was 
"reverenced  in  every  spot  of  Italy, 
and  had  altars  erected  to  him  every- 
where, in  the  streets  of  the  towns  as 
well  as  by  the  roadsides."  * 

MERCURIUS. 

t 

209.  Mercurius  was  the  god  of  com- 
merce and  traffic  generally.     As  trade 
was  not  looked  upon  with  much  re- 
spect at  Rome,  his  position  among  the 
"  great  gods "   was  a  low  one.      He 
had  no  very  ancient  temple  or  priest- 
hood, and,   when  allowed  the  honor 
of  a  temple  in  the  second  decade  of 
the  Republic,  f  his  worship  seems  to 
have  been  regarded  as  plebeian  and 
of  an  inferior  character.     Connected 
with  it  was  a  "guild  of  merchants  "  $ 
(collegium   mercatoruni),   called   after- 
ward, "  Mercuriales,"  who  met  at  the 
temple  on  certain  fixed  days  for  a  relig- 
ious purpose.      The  cult  of  Mercury 
was,  like  that  of  Hercules,  very  widely 
diffused ;  but  it  was  affected   chiefly 
by  the  lower  orders,  and  had  not  much 
hold  upon  the  nation. 

NEPTUNUS. 

210.  The  Latin  Neptunus  is  reason- 
ably   identified    with    the    Etruscan 
Nethuns,§  who  was  a  water  god,  wide- 
ly worshiped  by  that  seafaring  people. 
The  word  is  probably  to  be  connected 
with  the  root  nib  or  nip,  found  in  V/TTTW, 
v<7r7//p,  xtp-vtp-a,   x-   T.  1-    There  is  not 
much  trace  of  the  worship  of  Neptune 
at  Rome  in  the  early  times,  for  Livy's 
identification  of  him  with    Census, || 
the  god   honored  in  the    Consualia, 
cannot  be  allowed.     We  find  his  cult, 


*  Mommsen,  1.  s.  c. 
t  Liv.  ii.  27. 

t  Niebuhr,  "  History  of  Rome,"  vol.   i.  p. 
589,  note,  E.  T. 

§  Taylor,  "  Etruscan  Researches,"  p,  138. 
U  Liv.  i.  9. 


. 

however,  fully  established  in  the  sec- 
ond century  of  the  Republic,*  when 
it  was  united  with  that  of  Mercury, 
the  mercantile  deity.  In  later  times 
he  had  an  altar  in  the  Circus  Flami- 
nius,  and  a  temple  in  the  Campus 
Martius.  A  festival  was  held  in  his 
honor,  called  Neptunalia,  on  the  23d 
day  of  July,  which  was  celebrated 
with  games,  banquets,  and  carousals. 
The  people  made  themselves  booths N 
at  this  time  with  the  branches  of  treesf : 
and  feasted  beneath  the  pleasant 
shade  of  the  green  foliage.  Roman 
admirals,  on  quitting  port  with  a  fleet,/ 
were  bound  to  sacrifice  to  Neptune, 
and  the  entrails  of  the  victims  were 
thrown  into  the  sea.  After  the  Greek 
mythology  became  known  to  the  Ro- 
mans, Neptune  was  completely  identi- 
fied with  Poseidon,  and  became  in- 
vested with  all  his  attributes.  Amphi- 
trite  became  his  wife,  and  the  Nereids 
his  companions. t 

211.  In  succession  to  the  twelve 
deities  of  the  first  rank  may  be  placed 
the  following  important  groups  : — i. 
The  gods  of  the  country  :  Tellus,  or 
Mother  Earth  ;  Silvanus,  god  of  the 
woods ;  Pomona,  goddess  of  orchards ; 
Flora,  goddess  of  flowers  ;  Faunus 
("  favoring  god  "),  presiding  over 
flocks  and  herds ;  and  Vertumnus, 
god  of  the  changing  year  (verto).  2. 
The  State  gcds  :  Terminus,  god  of 
the  boundary  ;  Census,  god  of  the 
State's  secret  counsels  ;  Quirinus, 
god  of  the  Qtiirinal  and  of  the  Qui- 
rites,  or  Roman  people  ;  and  the 
Penates,  gods  of  the  State's  property 
(penus).  3.  The  personifications  of 
abstract  qualities  :  Pietas,  goddess  of 
piety  ;  Fides,  of  faith ;  Spes,  of  hope ; 
Pax,  of  peace  abroad ;  Concordia,  of 
peace  at  home  ;  Libertas,  of  liberty ; 
Fortuna,  of  good  luck;  Juventas,  of 
youth  ;  Salus,  of  health ;  Pudicitia,  of 
modesty ;  Victoria,  of  victory ;  Cupid, 
god  of  desire ;  Pavor,  of  fright ;  Pal- 
lor, of  paleness;  and  the  like.  4. 
The  Nature  gods  :  Ccelus,  Terra,  Sol, 
Lunus,  or  Luna,  ^sculanus,  Argen- 


*Liv.  v.  13. 

t  Hor.  Od.  iii.  28, 


10. 


86    [164] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


tinus,  etc.  And  5.  The  divinities 
introduced  from  Greece  :  Apollo,  Bac- 
chus, Latona,  Pluto,  Plutus,  Proser- 
pine, Castor,  Pollux,  yEsculapius,  Pria- 
pus,  /Eolus,  the  Fates,  u.e  Furies,  etc. 

212.  To   this  brief  sketch   of  the 
chief  objects  of  worship  among  the 
ancient  Romans,  it   follows    to    add 
some  account  of  the  character  of  the 
worship  itself. 

213.  The   worship  of  most  of  the 
gods    was    specially  provided  for  by 
the    State,    which    established    paid 
priesthoods,   to  secure  the  continual 
rendering  of  the  honors  due  to  each. 
The  highest  order  of  priests  bore  the 
name  of  Flamines,  which  is  thought  to 
mean  "  kindlers  of  fire,"  *  />.,  offerers 
of    burnt   sacrifice.      The    Flamines 
were   of   two   classes,    Majores    and 
Minores,  the  former  of   whom  were 
always  taken  from  the  patrician  order. 
These   were  the   Flamen   Dialis,   or 
"priest  of  Jove,"  the    Flamen   Mar- 
tialis,   or  "  priest  of  Mars,"  and  the 
Flamen  Quirinalis,  or  "  priest  of  Quiri- 
rms."     Among  the  Flamines  Minores, 
many  of  whom  were  of  late  institution, 
we   find  those  of  Vertumnus,   Flora, 
Pomona,  and  Vulcan. f     The  Flamen 
was  in  each  case  the  principal  sacrific- 
ing priest  in  the  chief  temple  of  the 
god  or  goddess,  and  was  bound  to  be 
in    continual    attendance    upon    the 
shrine,  and  to  superintend  the  entire 
worship  offered  at  it.  -  In  addition  to 
the  Flamen,  or  in  his  place,  there  was 
attached  to  all  temples  a  collegium, 
or  body  of  priests,  which  might  con- 
sist of  all  the  male  members  of  a  par- 
ticular   family,    as    the    Potitii    and 
Pinarii,$   but  was  more  commonly  a 
close  corporation,  limited  in  number, 
and  elected  by  co-optation,  *>.,  by  the 
votes  of  the  existing  members. 

214.  Among   the    most    important 
of   these   corporations  were  the  two 
collegia  of  Salii,  or"  dancing  priests," 
which  were  attached  to  the  temple  of 
Mars  upon  the  Palatine  hill,  and  to 


*  Mommsen,  "  History  of  Rome,"  vol.  i.  p. 

17.5- 

r  Ennius  ap.  Varronem,  "  De  Ling.  Lat." 
viL  44 


|  Liv.  i.  7- 


that  of  Quirinus  upon  the  Quirinal. 
'"Hie  former — Salii  Palatini — had  the 
charge  ofthe  ancilia,  or  sacred  shields, 
one  of  which  was  believed  to  have 
fallen  from  heaven,  and  to  be  fatally 
connected  with  the  safety  of  the 
Roman  State.  In  the  great  festival 
of  Mars,  with  which  the  year  opened, 
they  marched  in  procession  through 
the  city,  bearing  the  ancilia  on  their 
shoulders,  and  striking  them  from 
time  to  time,  as  they  danced  and  sang, 
with  a  rod.  The  Salii  of  Quirinus— 
Salii  Collini  or  Agonales — were  a  less 
important  college.  Their  duties  con- 
nected them  with  the  worship  of 
Quirinus,  who  is  believed  by  some  to 
have  been  the  Sabine  Mars,*  and  with 
the  festival  of  the  Quirinalia.  Like 
the  other  Salii,  they  no  doubt  per- 
formed war-dances  in  honor  of  their 
patron  deity.  A  third  collegium,  or 
priestly  corporation  of  high  rank,  was 
that  of  the  six  Vestal  Virgins,  at- 
tached, as  their  name  implies,  to  the 
worship  of  Vesta,  and  regarded  with 
peculiar  veneration,  as  having  vowed 
themselves  to  chastity  in  the  service 
of  the  nation.  Other  collegia  of  some 
importance,  but  of  a  lower  rank,  were 
that  of  the  Fratres  Arvales,  a  college 
of  twelve  priests  attached  to  the  cult 
of  Ceres,  who  celebrated  a  festival  to 
her  as  the  Dea  dia  (divine  goddess) 
in  the  early  summertime  ;  and  that  of 
the  Luperci,  or  "  wolf-expellers,"  a 
shifting  body  of  persons,  whose  chief 
business  it  was  to  conduct  the  Luper- 
calia,  a  festival  held  annually  on  the 
1 5th  of  February,  in  honor  of  Luper- 
cus,  or  Faunus.  The  Sodales  Titii 
had  duties  similar  to  those  of  the 
Fratres  Arvales  ;  and  the  Flamines 
Curiales,  thirty  in  number,  offered 
sacrifices  for  the  preservation  of  the 
thirty  curies  of  the  original  Roman 
people. 

215.  From  these  collegia  of  priests, 
we  must  carefully  distinguish  the 
learned  corporations,  "colleges  of 
sacred  lore,"  as  they  have  been 
called, f  who  had  no  priestly  duties, 
and  ho  special  connection  with  any 


*  Mommsen,  vol.  i.  pp.  87  and  175. 
t  Ibid.  pp.  177,  178. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[165]    87 


particular  deity.  There  were  four 
principal  colleges  of  this  kind — those 
of  the  Pontifices,  the  Augurs,  the 
Fetials,  and  the  Duumviri  sacrorum. 

216.  The  Pontifices,  originally  four 
(or  five,  if   we    include    the   pontifex 
maximus),    but   afterward    raised    to 
nine,  and  ultimately  to  sixteen,  had 
the  general  superintendence  of  relig- 
ion.    They  exercised  a   control   over 
all   the    priests,    even    the    Flamens. 
They  were  supposed  to  be  thoroughly 
acquainted    with    all    the    traditions 
with  regard  to  the  appropriate  worship 
of  each  divinity;    to  understand  the 
mysteries    of    numbers,     and    to    be 
deeply  versed  in  astronomy — whence 
they  settled   the    calendar,  determin- 
ing when  each  festival  was  to  be  held, 
and  what  days  were  fasti  or  nefasti,  i.e., 
days   suitable   for   the  transaction  of 
business,  or  the  contrary.     All  prod- 
igies   and   omens  had  to  be  reported 
to  them  ;  and  with  them  it  lay  to  de- 
termine what  steps  should  be  taken  to 
appease  the  gods  in  connection  with 
each.     They  had  to  furnish  the  proper 
formula  on  all  great  religious   occa- 
sions, as  the  dedication  of  a  temple,* 
the   self-devotion   of  a  general,!  and 
the  like.     There  was  no  appeal  from 
their  decisions,  unless  in  some  cases 
to  the  people  ;   and  they  could  enforce 
obedience  by  the  infliction  of   fines, 
and,  under  certain  circumstances,  of 
death. 

217.  The    Augurs,    originally   four, 
like  the  Pontiffs,  and  raised,  like  them, 
first  to  nine,  and  later  to  sixteen,  were 
regarded   as   possessed  especially  of 
the  sacred  lore  connected  with  birds. 
Augural  birds  were  limited  in  number, 
and  were  believed  to  give  omens  in 
three  ways,  by  flight,  by  note,  or  by 
manner    of    feeding.      The    Augurs 
knew  exactly  what  constituted  a  good, 
and   what  a  bad,  omen  in  all  these 
ways.       They  were  consulted  when- 
ever the  State    commenced    any  im- 
portant business.     No  assembly  could 
be  held,  no  election  could  take  place, 
no   war  could  be   begun,    no   consul 

*  Liv.  i,  46, 

t  Ibid.  viii.  9  ;  x.  28. 


could  quit  Rome,  no  site  for  a  new 
temple  could  be  fixed  on,  unless  the 
Augurs  were  present,  and  pronounced' 
that  the  birds  gave  favorable  omens. 
In  war,  they  watched  the  feeding  of 
the  sacred  chickens,  and  allowed  or 
forbade  engagements,  according  as 
the  birds  ate  greedily  or  the  contrary. 
Divination  from  celestial  phenomena, 
especially  thunder  and  lightning,  was, 
at  a  comparatively  late  date,  added  lo 
their  earlier  functions.  As  their  du- 
ties enabled  them  to  exercise  a  veto 
upon  laws,  and  very  seriously  to  in- 
fluence elections,  the  office  was  much 
sought  after  by  candidates  for  polit- 
ical power,  and  was  regarded  as  one 
of  the  highest  dignities  in  the  State.* 

218.  The    Fetials,    a    college    of 
(probably)  twenty  persons,  were  the 
living  depositary  of  international  law 
and  right.     All  the  treaty  obligations 
of    Rome    and    her   neighbors   were 
supposed  to  be  known  to  them,  and 
it  was  for  them  to  determine  when  a 
war  could  be  justly  undertaken,  and 
what  reparation  should  be  demanded 
for  injuries.     Not  only  did  they  fur^ 
nish  the  forms  for  demanding  satis- 
faction, f  declaring  war,$  and  making 
peace,§  but  their  own  personal  inter- 
vention   was   requisite  in  every  case. 
Invested  with  a  sacred  character,  they 
were  the  intermediaries  employed  by 
the  State  in  making  complaints,  pro- 
claiming war.  and  seeing  that  treaties 
were  concluded  with  the  proper  for- 
malities.    In  the  conclusion  of  such 
engagements    they    even     acted    as 
veritable   priests,    slaying  with  their 
own  hands  the   victims,   by  -offering 
which  a  sacred  character  was  given  to 
treaty  obligations. 

219.  The  Duumviri  sacrorum  were 
the   keepers,  consulters,    and    inter- 
preters of  the  Sibylline  books,  a  col- 
lection    of     pretended     prophecies, 
written  in  Greek,  and  no  doubt  derived 
from    a  Greek    source.     They   were, 
as  their  name  implies,  a  collegium  of 


*  Cic.  De  Leg.  ii.  12. 
1  Liv.  i.  32. 

\Ibid. 

§  Ibid.  i.  24. 


88    [160] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


two  persons  only,*  and  in  the  early 
times  were  required  10  be  Romans  of 
a  very  high  rank.  As  such  persons, 
not  unfrequently,  were  very  ignorant  of 
the  Greek,  the  State  furnished  them 
with  two  slaves  well  acquainted  with 
the  language.  It  was  customary  to 
consult  the  Sibylline  books  in  case  of 
pestilence,  or  of  any  extraordinary 
prodigy,  and  to  follow  scrupulously 
the  advice  which  they  were  thought  to 
give  in  reference  to  the  occasion. 

220.  Such  were  the  learned  colleges 
of  ancient  Rome.     Though  exercising 
considerable  political  influence,  they 
never  became  dangerous  to  the  State, 
from     the     circumstance    that    they 
could  in  no  case  take  the  initiative. 
Their  business  was  to  give  answers  to 
inquirers ;  and,  until  consulted,  they 
•were  dumb.     Private  persons  as  well 
ras    public   officers    might   appeal   to 
jtheiii ;  and  calls  were  frequently  made 
•on  them  to  bring   forth   their   secret 

knowledge  into  the  light  of  day  by  the 
magistrates.     But  it  was  of  their  es- 
•-.serice  to  be  consultative,  and  not  in- 
itiative,   or    even   executive    bodies. 
Hence,    notwithstanding  the   powers 
which  they  wielded,  and  the  respect 
in  which  they  were  held,  they  at  no 
time  became  a  danger  to  the  State. 
Sacerdotalism  plays  no  part  in  Roman 
history.     "  Notwithstanding  all  their 
.zeal  for  religion,  the  Romans  adhered 
with  unbending  strictness  to  the  prin- 
ciple, that  the  priest  ought  to  remain 
•  completely   powerless   in   the    State, 
and,  excluded  from  command,  ought, 
.like  any  other    burgess,    to    render 
-obedience    to    the    humblest   magis- 
:trate."f 

221.  The  public  religion  of  the  Ro- 
mans consisted,  mainly,  in  the  observ- 
ance  by  the  .-State  of   its  obligation 

'(religio)  to  provide  for  the  cult  of 
certain  traditional  deities,  which  it  did 
by  building  temples,  establishing 
priesthoods,  and  securing  the  continu- 
.ance  of  both  by  endowments.  Fur- 


*The  office  was  subsequently  expanded  in- 
to that  of  the  decemviri  sacris  faciundis,  who 
ultimately  became  quindecimviri. 

t  Mommsen,  "  History  of  Rome,"  vol.  i.  p. 
180. 


ther,  the  State  showed  a  constant 
sense  of  religion  by  the  position  which 
it  assigned  to  augury,  and  the  con- 
tinual need  of  "  taking  the  auspices  " 
on  all  important  civil  occasions.  In 
declaring  war,  religious  formulas  were 
used ;  in  conducting  it,  the  augurs,  or 
their  subordinates,  were  frequently 
consulted ;  in  bringing  it  to  an  end 
and  establishing  peace,  the  fetials  had 
to  be  called  in,  and  the  sanction  thus 
secured  to  each  pacific  arrangement. 
The  great  officers  of  the  State  were  in- 
ducted into  their  posts  with  religious 
solemnities,  and  were  bound  to  attend 
and  take  their  part  in  certain  proces- 
sions and  sacrifices.  In  times  of  dan- 
ger and  difficulty  the  State  gave  orders 
for  special  religious  ceremonies,  to 
secure  the  favor  of  the  gods,  or  avert 
their  wrath. 

222.  The  religion  of  the  mass  of 
the  people  consisted  principally  in 
four  things  :  i.  Daily  offerings  by 
each  head  of  a  household  (^paterfa- 
milias) to  the  Lares  of  his  own  house. 
The  Lares  were  viewed  as  household 
gods,  who  watched  over  each  man's 
hearth  and  home,  each  house  having 
its  own  special  Lares.  In  theory  they 
were  the  spirits  of  ancestors,  and  their 
chief,  the  Lar  f amiliaris,  was  the  spirit 
of  the  first  ancestor,  the  originator  of 
the  family  ;  but  practically  the  ances- 
tral idea  was  not  prominent.  In  re- 
spectable houses  there  was  always  a 
lararium,*  or  "  lar-chapel,"  containing 
the  images  of  the  Lares  ;  and  each  re- 
ligious Roman  commenced  the  day 
with  prayer  in  this  place,  accompany- 
ing his  prayer,  upon  most  occasions, 
with  offerings,  which  were  placed  be- 
fore the  images  in  little  dishes  (pafellce). 
The  offerings  were  continually  re- 
newed at  meal-times;  and  on  birth- 
days and  other  days  of  rejoicing  the 
images  were  adorned  with  wreaths, 
and  the  lararia  were  thrown  open. 
2.  Occasional  thank-offerings  to  par- 
ticular gods  from  persons  who  thought 

*  The  Emperor  Alexander  Severus  had 
two  lararia,  and  included  among  the  Lares 
of  the  one,  Abraham.  Orpheus,  Alexander 
the  Great,  and  Christ;  among  those  of  the 
other,  Achilles,  Cicero,  and  Virgil. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[167]    89 


they  had  been  favored  by  them. 
These  were  carried  to  the  temples  by 
the  donors,  and  made  over  to  the 
priests,  who  formally  offered  them, 
with  an  accompaniment  of  hymns  and 
prayers.  3.  Vows  and  their  perform- 
ance. To  obtain  a  particular  favor 
from  a  god  supposed  to  be  capable  of 
granting  it,  a  Roman  was  accustomed 
to  utter  a  vow,  by  which  he  bound 
himself  to  make  the  god  a  certain 
present,  in  case  he  obtained  his  desire. 
The  present  might  be  a  temple,  or  an 
altar,  or  a  statue,  or  a  vase,  or  any 
other  work  of  art,  but  was  almost  al- 
ways something  of  a  permanent  char- 
acter. The  Roman,  having  made  his 
vow,  and  got  his  wish,  was  excessively 
scrupulous  in  the  discharge  of  his 
obligation,  which  he  viewed  as  of  the 
most  binding  character.  4.  Attend- 
ance at  religious  festivals — the  Car- 
mentalia,  Cerealia,  Compitalia,  Con- 
sualia,  Floralia,  Lemuralia,  Luper: 
calia,  etc.  This  attendance  was  in  no 
sense  obligatory,  and  was  viewed 
rather  as  pleasure  than  duty — the 
festivals  being  usually  celebrated  with 
games  (Ju  //)  and  other  amusements. 

223.  Upon  the  whole,  the  Roman 
religion,  as  compared  with  others, 
and  especially  with  that  of  the  Greeks, 
strikes  us  as  dull,  tame,  and  matter- 
of-fact.  There  is  no  beauty  in  it,,  no 
play  of  the  imagination,  and  very 
little  mystery.  It  is  "of  earth, 
earthy."  Its  gods  are  not  great 
enough,  or  powerful  enough,  to  im- 
press the  mind  of  the  worshiper  with  a 
permanent  sense  of  religious  awe—- 
they do  not  force  the  soul  to  bow 
down  before  them  in  humility  and 
self-abasement.  The  Roman  believes 
in  gods,  admits  that  he  receives  bene- 
fits from  them,  allows  the  duty  of 
gratitude,  and,  as  a  just  man,  punctu- 
ally discharges  the  obligations  of  his 
religion.*  But  his  creed  is  not  ele- 
vating— it  does  not  draw  him  on  to 
another  world — it  does  not  raise  in 
him  any  hopes  of  the  future.  Like 


*  Note  the  idea  of  obligation  as  predomi- 
nant in  the  word  "  religion,"  from  re  and  lego 
)  "  to  bind  "  or  "  tie." 


the  Sadducee,  he  thinks  that  God  re- 
wards and  punishes  men,  as  He  does 
nations,  in  this  life ;  his  thoughts 
rarely  turn  to  another;  and  if  they 
do,  it  is  with  a  sort  of  shiver  at  the 
prospect  of  becoming  a  pale  shade, 
haunting  the  neighborhood  of  the 
tomb,  or  dwelling  in  the  cold  world 
beneath,  shut  out  from  the  light  of 
day. 

224.  If  the  Roman  religion  may  be 
said  to  have  had  anywhere  a  deeper 
character  than  this — to  have  been 
mysterious,  soul-stirring,  awful  —  it 
was  in  connection  with  the  doctrine  of 
expiation.  In  the  bright  clime  of  Italy, 
and  in  the  strong  and  flourishing  Ro- 
man community,  intensely  conscious 
of  its  own  life  and  vigor,  the  gods 
could  not  but  be  regarded  predomi- 
nantly as  beneficent  beings,  who 
showered  blessings  upon  mankind. 
But  occasionally,  under  special  cir- 
cumstances, a  different  feeling  arose. 
Earthquakes  shook  the  city,  and  left 
great  yawning  gaps  in  its  streets  or 
squares;  the  Tiber  overflowed  its 
banks,  and  -inundated  all  the  low  re- 
gions that  lay  about  the  Seven  Hills  ; 
pestilence  broke  out,  destroying 
thousands,  and  threatening  to  carry 
off  the  entire  people;  or  the  fortune 
of  war  hung  in  suspense,  nay,  even 
turned  against  the  warrior  nation. 
At  such  times  a  sense  of  guilt  arose, 
and  pressed  heavily  on  the  con- 
sciences of  the  Romans  ;  they  could 
not  doubt  that  Heaven  was  angry  with 
them  ;  they  did  not  dare  to  dispute 
that  the  Divine  wrath  was  provoked 
by  their  sins.  Then  sacrifice,  which 
in  Rome  was  generally  mere  thank- 
offering,  took  the  character  of  atone- 
ment or  expiation.  The  gods  were 
felt  to  require  a  victim,  or  victims  ; 
and  something  must  be  found  to  con- 
tent them — something  of  the  best  and 
dearest  that  the  State  possessed. 
What  could  this  be  but  a  human  sacri- 
fice ?  Such  a  sacrifice  might  be  either 
voluntary  or  involuntary.  Enhanced 
by  the  noble  quality  of  patriotic 
self-abnegation,  a  single  victim  suf- 
ficed—more especially  if  he  were  of 
the  best  and  noblest — a  young  pa.tri- 


00     [168] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


clan  of  high  promise,  like  Marcus 
Curtius,*  or  an  actual  consul,  like 
the  Decii.f  Without  this  quality 
there  must  be  several  victims — either 
a  sacred  and  complete  number,  like 
the  thirty,  once  offered  annually  at 
the  Lemuralia,  whereof  the  thirty  rush 
dolls  thrown  yearly  into  the  Tiber 
were  a  reminiscence,  or  else  an  in- 
definite number,  such  as  the  gods 
themselves  might  determine  on,  as 
when  a  "  ver  sacrum  "  was  pro- 
claimed, and  all  offspring,  both  of 
men  and  of  sacrificial  cattle,  pro- 
duced within  the  first  month  of  open- 
ing spring  (Aprilis),  were  devoted  to 
death  and  sacrificed  to  avert  God's 
wrath  from  the  nation. $ 

225.  The  mythological  fables  in 
which  the  Greeks  indulged  from  a 
very  early  date  were  foreign  to  the 
spirit  of  the  Romans,  who  had  no 
turn  for  allegory,  and  regarded  the 
gods  with  too  much  respect  and  fear 
to  invent  tales  about  them.  No  tra- 
ditional accounts  of  the  dealings  of 
the  gods  one  with  another  gave  a 
divine  sanction  to  immorality,  or  pre- 
vented the  Romans  from  looking  up 
to  their  divinities  as  at  once  greater 
and  better  than  themselves.  The 
moral  law  was  recognized  as  an  ac- 
cepted standard  with  them,  and  its 
vindication  whenever  it  was  trans- 
gressed rested  with  the  deity  within 
whose  special  sphere  the  offense  was 
conceived  to  fall.  Hercules  avenged 
broken  faith  ;  Ops  and  Ceres  punished 
the  lazy  cultivator  ;  ill-conducted  ma- 
trons incurred  the  anger  of  Juno ; 
the  violation  of  parental  or  filial  duty 
fell  under  the  cognizance  of  Jupiter. 
Whenever  conduct  was  felt  to  be 
wrong,  yet  the  civil  law  visited  the 
misconduct  with  no  penalty,  the  dis- 
pleasure of  the  gods  supplemented  the 
legal  defect,  and  caused  the  offender 
in  course  of  time  to  meet  with  due 
punishment.  Their  belief  on  this 
head  was,  in  part,  the  effect,  but  it 


*  Liv.  vii.  6. 

t  Ibid.  vi;.  9;  x.  28. 

\.  See  Fe6tus,  sub  voc.  "Ver  sacrum," 
and  compare  Liv.  xxiii.  9,  10;  xxxiv.  44; 
Servius  ad  Virg.  /En.  vii.  796,  etc. 


was  also,  in  part,  the  cause  of  those 
profound  moral  convictions  which  dis- 
tinguished the  Romans  among  ancient 
nations.  They  were  deeply  impressed 
with  the  reality  of  moral  distinctions, 
and  convinced  that  sin  was  in  all  cases 
followed  by  suffering.  The  stings  of 
conscience  received  increased  force 
and  power  from  the  belief  in  a  Divine 
agency  that  seconded  the  judgments, 
of  conscience,  and  never  failed"  to 
punish  offenders.1* 

226.  It  is  not  the  object  of  the 
present  work  to  trace  the  changes 
which  came  in  course  of  time  over  the 
Roman  religion,  or  even  to  note  the 
corrupting  influences  to  which  it  was 
exposed.  The  subject  of  "Ancient 
Religions  "  is  so  large  a  one,  that  we 
have  felt  compelled  to  limit  ourselves 
in  each  of  our  portraitures  to  the  pre- 
sentation of  the  religion  in  a  single 
aspect,  that,  namely,  which  it  wore  at 
the  full  completion  of  its* natural  and 
national  development.  To  do  more, 
to  trace  each  religion  historically  from 
its  first  appearance  to  its  last  phase, 
would  require  as  many  chapters  as  we 
have  had  pages  at  our  disposal.  The 
influence  of  religions  upon  each  other 
is  a  matter  of  so  much  difficulty, 
delicacy,  and  occasional  complexity, 
that  it  would  necessitate  discussions 
of  very  considerable  length.  An  ex- 
haustive work  on  the  history  of  relig- 
ions would  have  to  embrace  this  am- 
ple field,  and  must  necessarily  run  to 
several  volumes.  In  the  present  se- 
ries of  sketches,  limited  as  we  have 
been  as  to  space,  we  have  attempted 
no  more  than  the  fringe  of  a  great 
subject,  and  have  sought  to  awaken 
the  curiosity  of  our  readers  rather 
than  to  satisfv  it. 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 

227.  IT  has  been  maintained  in 
the  "  Introduction  "  to  this  work,  that 
the  time  is  not  yet  come  for  the  con- 
struction of  a  "  Science  of  Religion," 


*  Hor.  Od.  iii.  2,  11.  31,  32 ;  Tibull.  Carm. 
i.  9, 1.  4. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


[169]    91 


and  that  the  present  need  is  rather  to 
accumulate  materials,  out  of  which 
ultimately  such  a  science  may  perhaps 
be  evolved.  Still,  the  accumulation 
of  materials  naturally  suggests  certain 
thoughts  of  a  more  general  character; 
and  the  spirit  of  the  Baconian  phi- 
losophy does  not  forbid  the  drawing 
of  inferences  from  groups  of  phe- 
nomena even  while  the  greater  por- 
tion of  the  phenomena  are  unknown 
or  uninvestigated.  While,  therefore, 
we  abstain  from  basing  any  positive 
theory  upon  a  survey  of  religions 
which  is  confessedly  incomplete,  we 
think  that  certain  negative  conclusions 
of  no  little  interest  may  be  drawn  even 
from  the  data  now  before  us  ;  and 
these  negative  conclusions  it  seems  to 
be  our  duty  to  lay  before  the  reader, 
at  any  rate  for  his  consideration. 

228.  In   the   first   place,    it   seems 
impossible  to  trace  back  to  any  one 
fundamental  conception,  to  any  innate 
idea,  or  to  any  common   experience 
or  observation,  the  various  religions 
which    we    have    been    considering. 
The  veiled  monotheism  of  Egypt,  the 
dualism  of  Persia,  the  shamanism  of 
Etruria,  the  pronounced  polytheism 
of  India,  are  too  contrariant,  too  ab- 
solutely unlike,  to  admit  of  any  one 
explanation,  or  to  be  derivatives  from 
a  single  source.     The    human    mind 
craves  unity  ;  but  Nature  is  wonder- 
fully  complex.     The   phenomena   of 
ancient  religions,  so  far  as  they  have 
been  investigated,  favor  the  view  that 
religions  had  not  one  origin,  but  sev- 
eral distinct  origins. 

229.  Secondly,  it  is  clear  that  from 
none  of  the  religions  here  treated  of 
could  the  religion  of  the  ancient  He- 
brews have  originated.     The  Israelite 
people  at  different  periods  of  its  his- 
tory came,  and  remained  for   a  con- 
siderable time, under  Egyptian,  Baby- 
lonian, and    Persian   influence  ;  and 
there  have  not  been  wanting  persons 
of  ability  who  have  regarded  "Juda- 
ism "  as   a   mere    offshoot    from  the 
religion  of  one  or  other  of  these  three 
peoples.     But,    with    the    knowledge 
that  we   have  now  obtained  of  the  re- 
ligions in  question,  such  views  have 


been  rendered  untenable,  if  not  hence- 
forth impossible.  Judaism  stands  out 
from  all  other  ancient  religions,  as  a 
thing  sui  generis,  offering  the  sharpest 
contrast  to  the  systems  prevalent  in 
the  rest  of  the  East,  and  so  entirely 
different  from  them  in  its  spirit  and 
its  essence  that  its  origin  could  not 
but  have  been  distinct  and  separate. 

230.  Thirdly,  the  sacred  Books  of 
the    Hebrews    cannot   possibly  have 
been  derived  from  the  sacred  writings 
of  any  of  these  nations.     No  contrast 
can  be  greater  than  that  between  the 
Pentateuch  and  the  "  Ritual  of   the 
Dead,"  unless  it  be  that  between  the 
Pentateuch    and    the    Zendavesta,  or 
between  the  same  work  and  the  Vedas. 
A    superficial  resemblance  may  per- 
haps be  traced   between  portions  of 
the    Pentateuch   and    certain    of   the 
myths  of  ancient  Babylon  ;  but    the 
tone    and   spirit   of  the   two   are    so 
markedly  different,  that  neither  can 
be  regarded   as   the   original   of  the 
other.      Where  they   approach  most 
nearly,  as  in  the  accounts  given  of 
the  Deluge,  while  the  facts  recorded 
are  the  same,  or  nearly  the  same,  the 
religious    standpoint    is     utterly  un- 
like.* 

231.  Fourthly,  the  historic  review 
which  has  been'  here  made  lends  no 
support  to  the  theory,  that  there  is  a 
uniform  growth   and  progress  of  re- 
ligions from  fetishism  to  polytheism, 
from  polytheism  to  monotheism,  and 
from    monotheism    to    positivism,    as 
maintained  by  the  followers  of  Comte. 
None  of  the  religions  here  described 
shows  any  signs  of  having  been  de- 
veloped out  of  fetishism,  unless  it  be 
the  shamanism  of  the  Etruscans.     In 
most  of  them  the  monotheistic  idea  is 
most  prominent  at  the  first,  and  grad- 
ually becomes   obscured,    and   gives 
way  before  a  polytheistic  corruption. 
In  all  there  is    one  element,  at  least, 
which  appears  to  be  traditional,  viz., 
sacrifice,  for  it  can  scarcely  have  been 
by  the  exercise  of  his  reason  that  man 


••*  Compare  above,  pp.  25-26;  and  see  the 
Author's  Essay  in  "Aids  to  Faith."  Essay 
vi.,  pp.  275,  276. 


€2    [170] 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 


came  so  generally  to  believe  that  the 
superior  powers,  whatever  they  were, 
would  be  pleased  by  the  violent  death 
of  one  or  more  of  their  creatures. 

232.  Altogether,  the  theory  to  which 
the  facts  appear  on  the  whole  to  point, 
is  the  existence  of  a  primitive  religion, 
communicated  to  man  from  without, 
whereof  monotheism  and  expiatory 
sacrifice  were  parts,  and,  the  gradual 
clouding  over  of  this  primitive  revela- 
tion everywhere,  unless  it  were  among 
the  Hebrews.  Even  among  them  a 
worship  of  Teraphim  crept  in  (Gen. 
xxxi.  19-35),  together  with  other  cor- 
ruptions (Josh.  xxiv.  14);  and  the  ter- 
rors of  Sinai  were  needed  to  clear 
away  polytheistic  accretions.  Else- 
where degeneration  had  free  play. 
"  A  dark  cloud  stole  over  man's  orig- 
inal consciousness  of  the  Divinity ; 
and,  in  consequence  of  his  own  guilt, 
an  estrangement  of  the  creature  from 
the  one  living  God  took  place  ;  man, 
as  under  the  overpowering  sway  of 
sense  and  sensual  lust,  proportionally 
weakened,  therefore,  in  his  moral 
freedom,  was  unable  any  longer  to 
conceive  of  the  Divinity  as  a  pure, 
spiritual,  supernatural,  and  infinite 
Being,  distinct  from  the  world,  and 
exalted  above  it.  And  thus  it  followed 
inevitably,  that,  with  his  intellectual 
horizon  bounded  and  confined  within 
the  limits  of  nature,  he  should  seek  to 


satisfy  the  inborn  necessity  of  an  ac- 
knowledgment and  reverence  of  the 
Divinity  by  the  deification  of  material 
nature  ;  for  even  in  its  obscuration 
the  idea  of  the  Deity,  no  longer  recog- 
nized, indeed,  but  still  felt  and  per- 
ceived, continued  powerful ;  and,  in 
conjunction  with  it,  the  truth  struck 
home,  that  the  Divinity  manifested  it- 
self in  nature  as  ever  present  and  in 
operation."*  The  cloud  was  darker 
and  thicker  in  some  places  than  "in 
others.  There  were,  perhaps,  races 
with  whom  the  whole  of  the  past  be- 
came a  tabula  rasa,  and  all  traditional 
knowledge  being  lost,  religion  was 
evolved  afresh  out  of  the  inner  con- 
sciousness. There  were  others  which 
lost  a  portion,  without  losing  the 
whole  of  their  inherited  knowledge. 
There  were  others  again  who  lost 
scarcely  anything ;  but  hid  up  the 
truth  in  mystic  language  and  strange 
symbolism.  The  only  theory  which 
accounts  for  all  the  facts — for  the 
unity  as  well  as  the  diversity  of  An- 
cient Religions,  is  that  of  a  primeval 
revelation,  variously  corrupted  through 
the  manifold  and  multiform  deterio- 
ration of  human  nature  in  different 
races  and  places. 


65. 


Dollinger,  "Jew  and  Gentile,"  vol.  L  p. 


INDEX. 


The  reference  is  to  the  paragraphs. 


Aratus  quoted,  169 
Asherahs,  143 

ASSYRIANS  AND    BABYLONI- 
ANS: 

Astral  Deities,  57-63 
Belief  in  a  future  life,  66 
Deities : 

Anata,  or  Anat,  56 

Anu,  44,  45 

Asshur,  40-43 

Bel,  45,  46 

Bilat,  56 

Dav-kina,  56 

Gula,  or  Anunit,  56 

Hea,  or  Hoa,  45,  46 

II,  or  Ra,  39 

Ishtar,  61,  62,  73 

Merodach,  58,  59 

Nebo,  62 

Nergal,  60 

Nin,  or  Bar,  57,  58 

Shala,  or  Tala,  56 

Shamas,  51-54 

Sin,  47-50 

Vul,  55 

Lesser  gods,  63 
Legends : 

Creation  (Berosus),  69- 
70 

Deluge,  71-72 

Descent  of  Ishtar  into 
Hades,  73 

Izdubar,  61 

War  in  heaven,  68 
Polytheism,  36-38 
Prayers,  65 
Sacrifices,  65 
Superstitions,  67 
Temples,  64 
Triads,  42-55 
Worship,  64,  65 
Astronomers,  conjectures  of, 
I 

Baal,  etymology  of,  122 
Babylon,  etymology  of,  132 
Balak  quoted,  141 
Belief  in  a  future  life : 

Assyrian  and  Babylonian, 

Egyptian,  29 
i£truscan,  155,  156 
Iranian,  90,  91 
Roman,  223 
hanskritic  Indian,  115 


Bridge  of  the  gatherer,  le- 
gend of,  89 

Bunsen's  list  of  Egyptian 
Deities,  11  «. 

Creation,  legend  of  (Berosus), 
69 

Dagon,  etymology  of,  130 
Darius,     sculptures    on     the 

tomb  of,  84 

Degradation  of  religion,  232 
Deluge,  legends  of,  46,  70,  71 
Dualism  of  Iranians,  77,  qi 

EGYPTIANS,  ANCIENT  : 
Belief  in  a  future  life,  30 
Classification  of  deities,  9 
Dead,1  treatment  of  the,  30 
Deities : 

Ammon,  13 

Khem,  13 

Kneph,  14 

Neith,  or  Net,  19 
.    •-— •  Osiris,  18 

Phthah,  16 

Ra,  17 

Animal  gods,  25,  26,  27 

Nature  gods,  22 

Malevolent  gods,  23 

Moon  gods,  21 

Sun  gods,  20 

Bunsen's  list  of,  II  «. 

Wilkinson's     list      of, 

n  n. 

Embalming,  30 
Evil,  belief  in,  34 
Hymns,  33 
Polytheism,  9 
Priests,  knowledge  of,  33 
Sacrifices,  28 
Temples,  28 

Theological  system  of  edu- 
cated classes,  32-35 
Tombs,  30 
Triads,  24,  35 
Trinity,  supposed  doctrine 

of.  35 

Worship,  27,  28 
ETRUSCANS  : 

Belief  in  a  future  life,  155, 

!56 

Deities : 

Charun,  155 
Cupra,  148 


Mantus  and  Mania,  155 
Menrva,  or  Menrfa,  1 51 
Tina,  or  Tinia,  148 
Usil  and  Losna,  151 
Elemental  gods,  152 
Genii,  or  spirits,  156 
Lares,  the,  160 
Novensiles,  the,  1 54 

Priests,  158 

Sacrifices,  158 

Superstition,  146, 162 

Tombs,  156,  1 60 

Worship,  158 
Etymologies : 

Ahura-Mazda,  78-80 

Angro-Mainyus,  79,  80 

Baal,  120 

Babylon,  132 

Dagon,  130 

Melchizedek,  122 

Pharaoh,  17 

Sennacherib,  50 
Eusebius,       Extracts       from 

"  Evangelical  Preparation," 

on  Phoenician  Religion,  118 

Fire,  Discovery  of,  138 

GREEKS,  ANCIENT: 
Deities : 

Aphrodite,  185 

Apollo,  173 

Ares,  176 

Artemis,  183 

Athene,  182 

Demeter,  187 

Dionysus,  189 

Hades,  191 

Hepiiasstus,  177 

Hera,  181 

Hermes,  178 

Hestia,  186 

Leto,  or  Latona,  190 

Persephone,  191 

Poseidon,  172 

Zeus,  1 68 

Lesser  Gods,  165 

Classification  of,  166 
Festivals,  193 
Hymns,  192 
Joyousness     of     Worship, 

192 
Legend  of  the  "  Lay  of  the 

Net,"  177 
Nature  Worship,  163 


04    [172] 


INDEX. 


Mysteries,  195 
Polytheism,  163 
Prayers,  192 
Sacrifices,  194 
Vows,  192 
Worship,  163,  189 

Hebrews,   origin   of   religion 

of,  229 

Henotheism,  48,  103 
Hittites  or  Khita,  the  God  of, 

34 
Hymns : 

Egyptian,  33 
Iranian,  76,  85,  92 
Sanskritic  Indian,  112,  115 

Idzubar,  legend  of,  61 
IRANIANS: 

Belief  in  a  future  life,  89 

Dead,  treatment  of  the,  97 

Deities : 

Ahura-Mazda,  So 
Ahuras,  the,  82 
Angro-Mainyus,  81 
Amesha-Spentas,    the, 

82 
Devas,  the,  82 

Dualism,  77,  91 

Elemental  worship,  93 

Fire-worship,  93,  98 

Gathas,  extracts  from,  92 

Early  home  of,  74 

Homa,    or    Haoma,    cere- 
mony of,  85 

Hymns,  76,  85,  92 

Industry,  87 

Legend  of  the   Bridge    of 
the  gatherer,  89 

Magism  among  the,  93-96 

Morality,  91 

Parsees,  76 

Position  of  man  in  cosmic 
scheme,  85 

Prayers,  85 

Priests,  Magian,  94,  96 

Purity,  86 

Religion  not  idolatrous,  83, 
96 

Resurrection,  90 

Sacrifices,  85,  93 

Veracity,  88 

Water-worship,  93 

Worship,  93-98 

Winged  circle,  83 

Zendavesta,  the,  76 

Zoroastei",  75 
Ishtar,  descent  of,  into  Hades, 

73 

"  Lay  of  the  Net,"  legend  of, 
177 

Magism,  93-96 
Melchizedek,    etymology    of 

122 

Mesa,  inscription  of,  124' 
Metals,  origin  of  working  in 

133 


Milton  quoted,  187 
Moloch,  or  Molech,  134 

'OZnone,"    quotation    from, 
185 

Parsees,  76 

Philo  Byblius,  works  of,  118 

Philologists,         comparative, 

views  of,  i 

PHOENICIANS    and    CARTHA- 
GINIANS: 

Asherahs,  143 

Babylon,  etymology  of,  132 

Bastyli,  143 

Balak  quoted,  14 1 

Deities : 

Adonis,    or    Tammuz, 

A'3' 

Ammon,  139 
Ashtoreth,  or  Astarte, 

128 

Baal,  127 
Baaltis,  135 
Dagon,  130 
El,  132 
Eshmun,  137 
Kabiri,  the,  138 
Melkarth,  129 
Moloch,    or     Molech, 

134 

Osiris,  139 
Sadyk,  136 
Shamas,  or  Shemesh, 

J34 

Tanith,  or  Tanath,  139 
Etymology  of  names,    121, 

125 

Festivals,  144 
Licentiousness,  140 
Original  worship  monothe- 
istic, 122-126 
Pillar  worship,  143 
Polytheism,  120 
Sacrifices,  141-144 
Sun-Worship,  133 
Temples,  143 
Worship,  131,  140,  148 
"  Poenulus  "  of  Plautus  quoted, 

126 

Polytheism : 
Assyrian    and  Babylonian, 

Egyptian,  9 
Greek,  163 
Phoenician,  120 
Sanskritic  Indian,  99 
Prayers : 
Assyrian    and  Babylonian, 

65 

Greek,  192 
Iranian,  85 
Roman,  222 
Sanskritic  Indian,  112 

Religion,  history  of,  3,  5 
Science  of,  4,  227-232 
Origin  of,  227 
Degradation  of,  231 


Resurrection  of  the  body  not 

held  by  the  Iranians,  90 
ROMANS^  ANCIENT  : 

Belief  in  a  future  life,  223 
Capitoline  Triad,  the,  200 
Classification  of  Deities, 

198 
Collegia :  the 

Augurs,  217 

Duumviri       sacrorum, 
219 

Fetials,  218 

Pontifices,  216 

Flamines  Curiales,  214 

Fratres  Arvales,  214 

Luperci,  214 

Salii  Collini,  or  Agon- 
ales,  214 

Salii  Palatini,  214 

Sodales  Titii,  214 

Vestal  Virgins,  214 
Deities: 

Ceres,  205 

Hercules,  208 

Juno,  200 

Jupiter,  199 

Mars,  202 

Mercurius,  209 

Minerva,  201 

Neptunus,  210 

Ops,  207 

Saturnus,  206 

Vesta,  204 

Abstract  qualities,  gods 
of  the,  211 

Country,  gods  of  the, 
211 

Grecian  Gods,  211 

Nature  gods,  211 

State,     gods    of    the, 
211,  213 

Lares,  222 
Di  majores,  198 
Expiation,  doctrine  of,  224 
Festivals,  222 
Flamines,  the,  213 
Hymns,  222 

Moral  law  recognized,  225 
Prayers,  222 
Priests,  213,  221 
Religion,  character  of,  223 
Sacrifices,  224 
State  religion,  219 
Thank  offerings,  222 
Vows,  222 
Worship,  213,  222 

Sacrifices : 

Assyrian  and  Babylonian,  66 

Egyptian,  29 

Etruscan,  158 

Grecian,  194 

Phoenician   and   Carthagin- 
ian, 141-143 

Roman,  224 

Sanskritic  Indian,  113 
SANSKRITIC  INDIANS: 

Belief  in  a  future  life,  115- 
117 


INDEX, 


[173]    95 


Deities : 

Agni,  105 

Dyaus,  108 

Indra,  104 

Mitra,  104 

Nature  gods,  106 

Prithivi,  108 

Soma,  no 

Surya,  107 

Ushas,  106 

Varuna,  104 

Vayu,  108 

Lesser  gods,  109 
Fire-worship,  105 
Henotheism,   or   Katheno 

theism,  103 
Hymns,  112,  115 
Libations,  113 
Mantras,  in 
Offerings,  113 
polytheism,  99-103 


Prayers,  112 

Priests,  in 

Sacrifices,  113 

Soma  plant,  no 

Vedic  poems,  extracts  from, 

116 

Worship,  111-114 
Superstitions : 
Assyrian    and    Babylonian, 

67 
Estruscan,  146,  162 

Temples : 
Assyrian   and  Babylonian, 

64 

Egyptian,  28 

Phoenician   and  Carthagin- 
ian, 143 

Teraphim,  worship  of,  232 
Tombs : 

Egyptian,  30 


Etruscan,  156,  160 
Trinity,    supposed    Egyptian 
doctrine  of  the,  35 

War  in  heaven,  legend  of,  68 
Wilkinson's  list  of  Egyptian 

deities,  n  n. 
Worship : 

Assyrian  and    Babylonian, 
64 

Egyptian,  27,  28 

Etruscan,  158 

Grecian,  163,  188,  189 

Iranian,  93-98 

Phoenician   and  Carthagim- 
ian,  131,  140 

Roman,  213,  222 

Sanskritic  Indian,  1 1  i-i  14 

Zendavesta,  the,  76 
Zoroaster,  75 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION 

CHAPTER 

CHAPTER 

CHAPTER 

CHAPTER 

CHAPTER 

CHAPTER 

CHAPTER 


TASK 
, I 

I.    THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  EGYPTIANS 2 

II.    THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ASSYRIANS  AND  BABYLONIANS 13 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  IRANIANS 28 

THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  EARLY  SANSKRITIC  INDIANS 38 

THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  PHOENICIANS  AND  CARTHAGINIANS  —  48 

THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ETRUSCANS 59 

THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  GREEKS 65 

CHAPTER  VIII.    THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  ROMANS So 

CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 9° 


III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 


" 


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